Guild Wars 2

Hi people,

Having played all sorts of professions, starting with mesmer, followed by engineer, I was basically wondering what class would be my best bet to play if I wanted to play just ONE profession for every pve aspect. Things I’d be doing include:

- Raids (pugs and guild)
- Fractals (pugs and guild)
- Trying to solo dungeons (and champions in open world but that should be okay if dungeons work I guess).

I know that some people might say that I should not limit myself to playing only one profession but I prefer mastering one profession and getting legendary weapon(s) for that specific profession instead of being a multiclasser.

Which profession do you guys think would be the most solid investment?
I should note I like having:

- Perma swiftness (just feels good)
- Not every build being melee (I know melee or close range is meta for raids) but for soloing, sometimes you can’t facetank stuff imo so it’d be good to know I have different viable options when I need them).

I Absolutely hate:

- Having long cooldowns (60+ secs) because quite simply I enjoy fighting alot so I appreciate keeping my downtime between fights as short as possible.
- Being so niche that I will only be able to do certain group content (like Engineer for VG for example)

I’d very much appreciate everyone’s input!

I would have to say Elementalist is your best option. They have low cooldowns for the majority of skills, High DPS, requires a lot of concentration and focus to play, and if you do your rotations correctly you can have swiftness pretty much all the time. The only thing that people usually don’t like about the Elementalist are the fact that they are light armored classes, which makes them very “squishy” and easy to kill. This shouldn’t be a problem for PvE because if you play Elementalist right you can use the rotations to predict a boss’s actions. Anyways, this is my opinion on which class to choose under the given information of what you want/don’t want.

Mesmer or Ele.

Mesmers unparalleled group support will find you a spot in almost any group if you know how to play it well. Current meta raid comp is 2 chronomancers to grant perma quickness and alacrity. Fractals will benefit from your boonsharing and alacrity. In dungeons you can take a variety of roles such as helping to skip content, helping everyone survive large attacks through distortion share or WoP, or groupwide healing and general support (not too much is needed in dungeons, so a chronomancer can easily take care of it). For soloing dungeons though it will just take a while because our damage is low, but its easy due to mesmers gimmicks that make surviving relatively easy.

Elementalist/Tempest just has absolutely amazing DPS that will always be useful.

Warr or Guard.

Warr and Guard have amazing build variability and can both range and melee effectively. Guard has one of the best dps at the moment and can bring a lot of defensive support, while Warr is staple for almost all teams with their amazing offensive support and solid dps.

Both of these classes, if you build and play right, can be extremely survivable to play and great self buffing in solo and is a good pick for soloing dungeons or going around open world. Where other support classes and dpsers such as Ele, Mesmer etc may fall short without a good group in fractals, Guard and Warr can thrive in pugs and even carry them. They are easy to pick up but can have a lot of room for exploration and improvement. You cant go wrong with either of them.

Warr can achieve perma Swiftness easily and have one of the best movement capabilities in the game, probably only second to Thiefs. Guard is slower than Warr, but can achieve perma Swiftness on their own right.

Raids (currently) limit you to druid/elementalist/warrior/mesmer and maybe guardian.

While elementalist is top damage, I am hesitant to recommend it as it is extremely squishy which makes it fairly difficult to carry crappy PuGs in places like high level fractals. Also I am hesitant to recommend a DPS class when so many classes are competing for that raid spot (although so far eles have done exceptionally well in that regard)

Mesmer is a staple, but suffers from likely lowest solo dps in the game which can be plain painful to solo with. Not to say its not doable, but I personally found it a lot less pleasant solo than in a group.

Druid currently offers unparalleled healing, and reasonable class specific buffs, making it desirable in group content. It can also fall back on silly bearbow for soloing stuff while afk.

Warrior offers unparalleled boons (might, ea and banners) which makes it another staple in group content. If played well it is arguably one of the (if not the) strongest solo class, even though you would likely need to learn to melee (which isn’t that hard considering the amount of blocks/evades and sheer bulk warrior can pack)

So personally I would recommend a druid or a warrior.

It is also worth noting that any advice given is only good for the current balance. There is nothing to say that the next patch or next expansion will not turn the class balance upside down.

Zania.8461:

Raids (currently) limit you to druid/elementalist/warrior/mesmer and maybe guardian.

While elementalist is top damage, I am hesitant to recommend it as it is extremely squishy which makes it fairly difficult to carry crappy PuGs in places like high level fractals. Also I am hesitant to recommend a DPS class when so many classes are competing for that raid spot (although so far eles have done exceptionally well in that regard)

Mesmer is a staple, but suffers from likely lowest solo dps in the game which can be plain painful to solo with. Not to say its not doable, but I personally found it a lot less pleasant solo than in a group.

Druid currently offers unparalleled healing, and reasonable class specific buffs, making it desirable in group content. It can also fall back on silly bearbow for soloing stuff while afk.

Warrior offers unparalleled boons (might, ea and banners) which makes it another staple in group content. If played well it is arguably one of the (if not the) strongest solo class, even though you would likely need to learn to melee (which isn’t that hard considering the amount of blocks/evades and sheer bulk warrior can pack)

So personally I would recommend a druid or a warrior.

It is also worth noting that any advice given is only good for the current balance. There is nothing to say that the next patch or next expansion will not turn the class balance upside down.

Yeah I think for me it has come down to mesmer vs Druid I believe.
To be honest, I think soloing a dungeon will be painfully slow anyway so it is not my main goal. However I do like it when I can roam around open world pretty comfortably and solo the stuff I need to

The other option I was considering was Engineer but they don’t seem to get alot of playtime in raids

Spie.5024:

Yeah I think for me it has come down to mesmer vs Druid I believe.
To be honest, I think soloing a dungeon will be painfully slow anyway so it is not my main goal. However I do like it when I can roam around open world pretty comfortably and solo the stuff I need to

The other option I was considering was Engineer but they don’t seem to get alot of playtime in raids

Once you’re geared up and know a dungeon, they can be soloed incredibly fast. Some tempests can solo them in ~10 minutes depending on which dungeon and which path.

As to mesmer vs druid. I have a ranger and I enjoyed it a lot, but never got to druid. I can say that mesmer and chronomancer is a lot of fun though as its my main. The biggest thing I would caution you about is raids though. A lot of raid groups want the chronomancer to be the tank because its already low DPS will take a hit when it swaps gear for toughness. This adds a lot of pressure on the chrono since on top of managing buffs (which got a bit more intensive with the last balance patch) and knowing when/where to place wells, you also have to control the boss. If you have never raided and want to get into it, then I would say something other than chronomancer would be your best bet as the first class you try to raid with.

In open world Mesmer can solo stuff, its pretty easy to solo champs in core tyria on a mesmer/chronomancer (might be easy on a ranger too, I don’t know though) but in general fights do take longer than they wold on other classes. Its not as bad as it used to be though since mesmer sword 2 Blurred Frenzy gots its damage doubled in PvE the last balance patch. I would definitely recommend playing a mesmer and gearing one up.

Spie.5024:

The other option I was considering was Engineer but they don’t seem to get alot of playtime in raids

Engi is awesome fun but yea, even though our dps is on par with most we are still struggling cuz of the lame ol “meta” mentality.
Ranger/Druid is fun as well but there is just sooo many. Aside from that though I think Druid would be best all-around choice for what you looking for right now. Then you can come back and roll an Engi!!

Stick with engineer imo. I can’t speak for fractals as I do not play them but for the other two categories…

Condi engi has been and continues to be top tier dps if you learn your rotation well. This will have you a spot on all wing 1 encounters with plenty of helpful utility for your team.

Power engi is also rather high dps and will almost certainly have higher dps than the average pug ele given its incredibly simple rotation, though a more appropriate comparison is to a thief. Xera is great for engi. Sabetha is also good as a cannon runner, rifle 5 serving as a “blink”.

Solo is where engineer really shines as you have a solution (sometimes very creative ones!) to practically every situation lurking in your skills and traits.

I would have to say elementalist. They’re good at everything and pugs love them. Engineer also fits exactly what you described but they’re less popular with pug groups and their power damage is behind elementalist.

Crysto.7089:

Stick with engineer imo. I can’t speak for fractals as I do not play them but for the other two categories…

Condi engi has been and continues to be top tier dps if you learn your rotation well. This will have you a spot on all wing 1 encounters with plenty of helpful utility for your team.

Power engi is also rather high dps and will almost certainly have higher dps than the average pug ele given its incredibly simple rotation, though a more appropriate comparison is to a thief. Xera is great for engi. Sabetha is also good as a cannon runner, rifle 5 serving as a “blink”.

Solo is where engineer really shines as you have a solution (sometimes very creative ones!) to practically every situation lurking in your skills and traits.

Love you right now! You my new hero!

Joxer.6024:

Crysto.7089:

Stick with engineer imo. I can’t speak for fractals as I do not play them but for the other two categories…

Condi engi has been and continues to be top tier dps if you learn your rotation well. This will have you a spot on all wing 1 encounters with plenty of helpful utility for your team.

Power engi is also rather high dps and will almost certainly have higher dps than the average pug ele given its incredibly simple rotation, though a more appropriate comparison is to a thief. Xera is great for engi. Sabetha is also good as a cannon runner, rifle 5 serving as a “blink”.

Solo is where engineer really shines as you have a solution (sometimes very creative ones!) to practically every situation lurking in your skills and traits.

Love you right now! You my new hero!

As much as I am not a fan of engi I can’t deny that they are very versatile and would fit the bill when it comes to 1-character mindsets. Raids might be the only part you’ll struggle getting into as their is always a more optimal choice. But, a good engi can easily surpass a clumsy meta-profession.

My preferred character is Reaper for soloing as they are just insanely resilient and still output a good amount of damage.

Mesmer is the Jack of trades here when it comes to all PvE content, but their DPS can by abysmally low unless you’re playing a condi variant. Even then, Mesmer’s condi build excels at single target rather than mobs.