Guild Wars 2

Background:
I have eight characters: a Guardian, a Mesmer, several Thieves, and a Ranger.
I have tried every profession, to level 30+, both during the beta weekends, and since the game has released.
I have explored every zone, and completed the game at least once.
I only do PvE.

Personal Observations:
The various professions I’ve played, I’ve noted a huge differance in damage dealing, and abilities amongst the professions.
There are several skill challenges, and boss’ which can easily be solo’d by Guardians, Rangers, and Warriors, which prove impossible for many other professions.
The game appears to be centered around melee combat, as most ranged weapons are nign on to useless against some of the aforementioned groups.

And while some compensation can be seen in the number of possible summoned helpers vs professions that have no summons, the disparity of damage dealt is far from being balanced.
I.E.: The Thief, with Thieve’s Guild and another summon such as Call Wurm, cannot do, or sustain, the damage output of a Guardian, Ranger, or a Warrior.
Not to mention the fact that they cannot handle the damage they receive vs that of a Guardian, or a Warrior.
And, when a Guardian, or a Warrior, can take on a skill challenge with the boss and 2-4 helpers, solo, but a thief with 3 summons can’t, it’s obvious the professions are far from being balanced.

The Suggestion(s):
1). Balance the damage of professions, and their summons, if used, so that they are more equal.
2). Balance the damage, and speed, of melee and ranged weapons to be more equal. (Ranged weapons are currently so slow, they cannot compete vs melee weapons.)
3). Aesthetically, and practically speaking, all weapon combos should be more balanced. (Forcing the use of one weapon combo over a person’s preferred one, is far from balanced.)
4). Increase the effectiveness of armor and weapon vendor gear. Currently, one can barely do much of their personal story at level with them.

Warzog.6315:

The Suggestion(s):
1). Balance the damage of professions, and their summons, if used, so that they are more equal.
2). Balance the damage, and speed, of melee and ranged weapons to be more equal. (Ranged weapons are currently so slow, they cannot compete vs melee weapons.)
3). Aesthetically, and practically speaking, all weapon combos should be more balanced. (Forcing the use of one weapon combo over a person’s preferred one, is far from balanced.)
4). Increase the effectiveness of armor and weapon vendor gear. Currently, one can barely do much of their personal story at level with them.

1: So you’re basically wanting every profession to have the same damage? Professions can beat other professions if you know what you’re doing. Some may not be better than others in PvE do to people wanting specific utilities over the other, but that’s the only difference.

2: Again, same as number one. I agree that the long bow is slow, but you can still do things with it and it has useful and powerful abilities. I’m not sure how it is with other classes that can use the short bow, but you could just use that or a melee weapon again melee users.

3: It’s all about adapting. You’re not being forced to use a weapon just because of the combo field. If you really want to plan something for big damage or good heals you can, but no one is forcing you.
 
 
Not all professions are the same and some are harder to play than others, especially at earlier levels. In my opinion, all the professions are well balanced.

At this point of time class are balanced to work in PvP and PvE. That means to work against a max HP pool of 20k and a max HP pool of 200k on some bosses. The dmg and support power scales around that. Which means classes like Mesmer and Thieve with great burst power are very strong in PvP but are crippled in PvE as big mobs won’t die to burst and leave you vulnerab compared to other classes.

Another big thing is that atm a hugh amount of skills and traits are bugged. Making it impossible for A-net to balance soemthing as they don’t know if it is really strong or the counter options don’t work/ other classes options to do the same do not work.

What the game needs is a confident split between PvP and PvE ( or at least something like in GW1).

I was recently reminded of how different GW1 and GW2 are, as far as professions go…

Disregarding the dual class system of GW1, and the gimmic builds, all of the classes and their weapons were pretty much balanced against each other. That is, they all could do about the same damage. The differences were in how they did that damage, and how much damage the armor classes could take.

In GW2, the Guardian is the damage master, followed by the warrior, and fizzling out in the other professions.

Combined with the more melee oriented play of GW2, it’s even more unbalanced.

Sure, each profession plays differently, and each has it’s own feel, strengths and weakness’.

It just that it gets so annoying to try 3+ times to get a skill point solo, or even with help, only to see a guardian or a warrior come by and solo it in a fraction of the time it took you to.
I.E.: There is a skill point in Ascalon City where you fight your way up several sets of stairs, into a room full of Captain ghosts, with healer ghosts healing all the time, then up a final set to face a veteran before you can commune with the skill challenge. And the ghosts respawn so fast that you can barely kill two or three before the first one respawns.
My Guardian’s solo’d it.
I’ve never done it in any other profession without 2+ others helping. That’s not balanced in any way, shape, or form.
If one can solo it, all should be able to, or none should be able to.
(That’s the definition of balance.)

LaronX.8079:

…
Another big thing is that atm a hugh amount of skills and traits are bugged. Making it impossible for A-net to balance soemthing as they don’t know if it is really strong or the counter options don’t work/ other classes options to do the same do not work.
…

Exactly, Laron.
I’d love Anet, above all else, to fix the bugs in relation to character skills/traits!

One thing I’d suggest though is having our endurance (our ability to dodge) effected by the armour we wear. For example; I play a guardian, but being able to roll around as much as a thief is just plain odd.

“I.E.: The Thief, with Thieve’s Guild and another summon such as Call Wurm, cannot do, or sustain, the damage output of a Guardian, Ranger, or a Warrior.”

You’re kidding, right? Rangers outdamaging thieves? That is an impossibility.

@Warzog: Pretty much what you said. When I first leveled up my guardian I told my guild mates to not compalin so much and that PvE is pretty easy. When I levled up my Mesmer I got what the meant by I can’t solo that skill point.

@Tarn: That is actaually a great idea. Make it PvE only so the PvP guys don’t cry and it would give everything more dynamic.

@Agadar: Pure dps on a single target without a limited time the Ranger out dps pretty much everyone as he can keep up his dps ( spamming 1 2 and 3 on CD) problem is that in a dungone or any in game encounter you will never reach that dps as a longbow ranger beacus the stuff will be to close to you or you pet will die which provieds about 40% of your dmg.

Class balance philosophies
We normally try to employ metered and controlled balance changes with each pass, rather than huge reductions or improvements to classes. We want to get all classes on the same playing field, and we want to avoid “whack-a-mole” style balance. HUGH increases and HUGE decreases lead to meta instability, and thusly, we try to make multiple small tweaks rather than putting in massive changes that we have to later correct.
When designing and balancing the classes, we try to make sure that class roles and identities stay intact. So, in doing so, we make sure that there are rules and boundaries outlining the capabilities and weaknesses of each class.
Warrior
We want the Warrior to be capable of good melee damage in a sturdy body. They can still do some decent damage at range, but they aren’t as good at it as the Ranger (with their pet). They have a hard time taking enemy boons down, and instead, have to just go through them with raw force. They may have a hard time with enemy conditions, and may need to ask for ally help in order to keep themselves free of hampering conditions.
Guardian
The Guardian is a heavy armor class who relies on boons to make up for their low levels of innate health. They focus on area control and punishing enemies for the position on the battlefield. We want them to feel very powerful when their boons are active, but if those boons are removed, they will start to feel pressure. They can remove conditions more easily than the Warrior, but share the Warrior’s need to be in melee range to dole out maximum damage.
Ranger
The ranger class combines its own innate abilities with the skills of their pets. We’ve balanced the class around the idea that you always have a pet with you to aid in any fight. The fact that the ranger can have multiple pets allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight. We want the Ranger to have some of the evasion enjoyed by the Thief, as well as the mobility other classes employ. The class is able to deal physical or condition damage, and it can do this in melee or at range.
Engineer
The Engineer is a highly versatile class. While it doesn’t have the long range capabilities of the Ranger, or the melee capabilities of the Warrior or Guardian, they are comfortable at medium ranges in most fights. They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight. They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.
Thief
Thieves are the masters of mobility, stealth and high single target damage. They can be very fragile if you counter their stealth with area of effects or large stacks of conditions, but they trade this fragility in order to have some of the highest burst damage in the game. They are able to help allies through traps, venoms and the mobility to flank most encounters.
Mesmer
Mesmers rely on illusions in order to accomplish their goals. They need illusions to accomplish some of their highest damage and control, and without the illusions, they become fairly fragile. They can deal with enemy boons better than most classes, but enemy conditions can often be a problem. They share some of the stealth and mobility that the Thief enjoys, but suffer from a low health pool if you get past all their tricks.
Ele
We see the elementalist as the king of versatility. The skill ceiling for the Ele is exceptional, as the ability to leverage all four attunements at the right time is crucial for understanding the elemetnalist. The Ele boasts some of the best team support and control abilities in the game, as well as some great area of effect damage.
Necro
The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher. While they don’t have some of the escape or damage reduction capabilities that other classes boast, they do have a lot of ways to win attrition fights. They have access to poison on multiple weapons, they are able to combine condition damage with raw damage, and they have multiple disables to interrupt enemy skills. Necomancers also have multiple movement disabling abilities, while allows them to chase down enemies who are low on health.

From Jonathan Sharp

Agadar.4931:

“I.E.: The Thief, with Thieve’s Guild and another summon such as Call Wurm, cannot do, or sustain, the damage output of a Guardian, Ranger, or a Warrior.”

You’re kidding, right? Rangers outdamaging thieves? That is an impossibility.

Try a Ranger with an Arctodus Bear pet wielding a Greatsword. The only profession to out do them in damage, in my experience, are the Guardian and Warrior.
As to the Thief, it’s my favorite profession, I have five of them, one in each race, I love their playstyle, but watching others, or playing other professions, emphasizes the imbalance between the professions.

To Goorman / Jonathan Sharp:
I can understand the reasoning, but the disparity is very annoying to endure or see when one exclusively plays PvE on a daily basis.

It just dawned on me as to why the Guardian and Warrior do so well and the other professions less so.
All of their attacks, with the Greatsword, are AoE attacks.
Any enemy within the radius of their Greatword gets hit with every swipe.
(I’ve seen enemies behind my Guardian taking damage.)
Except for true AoE skills, no other weapon does AoE damage.
Perhaps the suggestion should have been:
Balance all edged weapons to strike anyone within range?
or…
Balance the Greatsword to only hit one target, or only the targets in front?

I still LOL every time I read this:

We’ve balanced the class around the idea that you always have a pet with you to aid in any fight. (apart from the fact they have no armor, don’t get any benefit from your full exotics, and die in milliseconds in any group fight…and then you are short 30-40% of your damage).

allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight (yeah…3 seconds of stationary cast on an F2 skill, might help for the next fight, this one is done by the time the pet ‘impacts’ anything)

and this:

They can be very fragile if you counter their stealth with area of effects or large stacks of conditions (yeah right, we all have loads of aoe and nothing better to do than spam it around us while the thief stands back laughing his head off, waits for us to be on cooldown and kills and finishes another one without even rendering out of stealth..)

Having played at least one of every profession to 80 I can tell you that that skill point is doable by every class – just don’t do it at the level of the area, 5-6 levels above and with scaling you will have a much better time of it. At level it is very tough due to fast respawn, but that can be overcome by good positioning so most of the respawns don’t get you, as well as knowing what their skills do.

Classes are nowhere near balanced, and in wvw the ‘thoughts’ behind each class become meaningless or broken.

They need to do what they did in gw1, and have different skills and effects for pvp/wvw and pve

Goorman.7916:

Class balance philosophies
We normally try to employ metered and controlled balance changes with each pass, rather than huge reductions or improvements to classes. We want to get all classes on the same playing field, and we want to avoid “whack-a-mole” style balance. HUGH increases and HUGE decreases lead to meta instability, and thusly, we try to make multiple small tweaks rather than putting in massive changes that we have to later correct.
When designing and balancing the classes, we try to make sure that class roles and identities stay intact. So, in doing so, we make sure that there are rules and boundaries outlining the capabilities and weaknesses of each class.
Warrior
We want the Warrior to be capable of good melee damage in a sturdy body. They can still do some decent damage at range, but they aren’t as good at it as the Ranger (with their pet). They have a hard time taking enemy boons down, and instead, have to just go through them with raw force. They may have a hard time with enemy conditions, and may need to ask for ally help in order to keep themselves free of hampering conditions.
Guardian
The Guardian is a heavy armor class who relies on boons to make up for their low levels of innate health. They focus on area control and punishing enemies for the position on the battlefield. We want them to feel very powerful when their boons are active, but if those boons are removed, they will start to feel pressure. They can remove conditions more easily than the Warrior, but share the Warrior’s need to be in melee range to dole out maximum damage.
Ranger
The ranger class combines its own innate abilities with the skills of their pets. We’ve balanced the class around the idea that you always have a pet with you to aid in any fight. The fact that the ranger can have multiple pets allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight. We want the Ranger to have some of the evasion enjoyed by the Thief, as well as the mobility other classes employ. The class is able to deal physical or condition damage, and it can do this in melee or at range.
Engineer
The Engineer is a highly versatile class. While it doesn’t have the long range capabilities of the Ranger, or the melee capabilities of the Warrior or Guardian, they are comfortable at medium ranges in most fights. They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight. They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.
Thief
Thieves are the masters of mobility, stealth and high single target damage. They can be very fragile if you counter their stealth with area of effects or large stacks of conditions, but they trade this fragility in order to have some of the highest burst damage in the game. They are able to help allies through traps, venoms and the mobility to flank most encounters.
Mesmer
Mesmers rely on illusions in order to accomplish their goals. They need illusions to accomplish some of their highest damage and control, and without the illusions, they become fairly fragile. They can deal with enemy boons better than most classes, but enemy conditions can often be a problem. They share some of the stealth and mobility that the Thief enjoys, but suffer from a low health pool if you get past all their tricks.
Ele
We see the elementalist as the king of versatility. The skill ceiling for the Ele is exceptional, as the ability to leverage all four attunements at the right time is crucial for understanding the elemetnalist. The Ele boasts some of the best team support and control abilities in the game, as well as some great area of effect damage.
Necro
The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher. While they don’t have some of the escape or damage reduction capabilities that other classes boast, they do have a lot of ways to win attrition fights. They have access to poison on multiple weapons, they are able to combine condition damage with raw damage, and they have multiple disables to interrupt enemy skills. Necomancers also have multiple movement disabling abilities, while allows them to chase down enemies who are low on health.

From Jonathan Sharp

I quoted this entire thing to get a point across.

First if you’re going to try to “quote” someone something said, you better be using proper grammar as there’s no way a Game Designer would spell classes in their own game wrong.

Second, if you are trying to imply you’re in fact Jonathan Sharp, that’s basically fraud and impersonating an Arenanet employee are most likely grounds for banning.

Warzog.6315:

Agadar.4931:

“I.E.: The Thief, with Thieve’s Guild and another summon such as Call Wurm, cannot do, or sustain, the damage output of a Guardian, Ranger, or a Warrior.”

You’re kidding, right? Rangers outdamaging thieves? That is an impossibility.

Try a Ranger with an Arctodus Bear pet wielding a Greatsword. The only profession to out do them in damage, in my experience, are the Guardian and Warrior.
As to the Thief, it’s my favorite profession, I have five of them, one in each race, I love their playstyle, but watching others, or playing other professions, emphasizes the imbalance between the professions.

To Goorman / Jonathan Sharp:
I can understand the reasoning, but the disparity is very annoying to endure or see when one exclusively plays PvE on a daily basis.

The Greatsword is the least damaging weapon of all of the Ranger’s weapon, and bears are the least damaging pets out of all of the Ranger’s pets.

In other words, you have no idea what you’re talking about.