Best classes for Raids?
Mesmer, Warrior, Revenant, Druid are pretty much taken all the time. Engis and Eles are taken quite often too, Necro can have some good use too albeit you won’t see all that many groups taking them. Guardian and Thief are barely ever taken.
With the right temas and builds, pretty much every class can contribute to a raid. As long as you have a healer, a tank, boon uptime and DPS (condition when needed) everything is viable. Thief does have its uses. Some groups are just too blinded by “metas” to see that. So my sugestion is, play a profession you like. If you don’t like Daredevil just use plain thief. Hope I helped.
Everything can be used, it’s just that people are way too bad to play anything else that isn’t “Meta”…
… annnnnd those blasted zergburger meta meatheads are too busy stacking at one of the corners [pillars] at VG, spamming fgs 4 and pressing 1!
Even though only one is needed per group, chronomancer and druid are probably the most desirable classes for raids. The skill of the chrono and druid can make or break a raid group.
Next is probably warrior since it is highly desirable with both condi and ps war being very strong in raids. It is less “wanted” because there are a lot of warriors out there and the class is fairly easy to play.
Revenant, Engineer, Tempest are probably about even. My group typically brings 1 rev to the raids, though some groups value it really highly and will use 2-4 of them. Revs are pretty common and are also easy to play which makes them somewhat less desirable. Engineer is really good against vale guardian (knockbacks, immobs, ranged, good condi damage) and gorseval (slick shoes), but suffers due to being a condi class that isn’t warrior. Tempest is extremely good in the gorseval and sabetha fights and so you will often see at least two against each boss, though it’s mediocre against VG. Then again some people hate tempest in every fight because it’s squishy and they don’t know how to avoid damage or their druid sucks.
Condi necro is also quite good, though I haven’t seen them be in high demand. Epidemic is really strong against both gorseval and sabetha, but some groups don’t bother since the extra dps is often overkill and the really high dps epi strats require 2 necros which is more than some groups want. A lot of groups also do not do the double necro strat against sabetha because high numbers of minions cause her napalm attack to become bugged and not necessarily target the furthest person away.
Guardian is also pretty good in all the fights because free protection is really helpful for keeping your team alive, but most groups don’t want them except maybe against sab.
Thief/DD is used for pretty much nothing, at least so far!
All this being said, if your group is decent you should be able to play any class and still defeat any of the first wing bosses. This is especially true against vale guardian and sabetha, but even gorseval isn’t that much of a dps check. Most pug groups probably would not take you as thief, but if you raid with guildies they would hopefully take you along sometimes, at least to learn the mechanics. Thief’s DPS isn’t that bad, it’s just worse than the other dps classes and they don’t bring the same raid utility as those other classes as well. But they are certainly the least desirable for the first wing.
(edited by Dinosaurs.8674)
Thief is still better than guardian for all the current raid bosses.
Dinosaurs pretty much nailed it. I would mention that a good dragonhunter can also manage green circle duty on VG without too much of a DPS loss, which is something. =P
Overall, if you just want to roll an alt to get a spot in a raid, a burnzerker is currently your best bet. Chronos and druids are great, but if that role’s already covered, you won’t have much chance on getting in the group. Burnzerkers are great, even if you have a bunch in your group.
Having 2 warriors in a group to cover banners for both squads is ideal, but even after you cover this, additional burnzerkers can bring different utility skills that will boost their personal dps or give more options for handling breakbars.
Now…that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nerf hammer strikes burnzerkers on the next balance patch. If it does, they may still be a great choice, but considering the cost of building a full set of vipers/sinister gear, it would suck if you went through all the trouble of gearing a condi set for a warrior only to see it get nerfed too hard and pushed to the back of the line in terms of meta builds.
Dinosaurs pretty much nailed it. I would mention that a good dragonhunter can also manage green circle duty on VG without too much of a DPS loss, which is something. =P
Overall, if you just want to roll an alt to get a spot in a raid, a burnzerker is currently your best bet. Chronos and druids are great, but if that role’s already covered, you won’t have much chance on getting in the group. Burnzerkers are great, even if you have a bunch in your group.
Having 2 warriors in a group to cover banners for both squads is ideal, but even after you cover this, additional burnzerkers can bring different utility skills that will boost their personal dps or give more options for handling breakbars.
Now…that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nerf hammer strikes burnzerkers on the next balance patch. If it does, they may still be a great choice, but considering the cost of building a full set of vipers/sinister gear, it would suck if you went through all the trouble of gearing a condi set for a warrior only to see it get nerfed too hard and pushed to the back of the line in terms of meta builds.
I expect the nerf hammer to hit Chronos more than Burnzerkers.
Dinosaurs pretty much nailed it. I would mention that a good dragonhunter can also manage green circle duty on VG without too much of a DPS loss, which is something. =P
Overall, if you just want to roll an alt to get a spot in a raid, a burnzerker is currently your best bet. Chronos and druids are great, but if that role’s already covered, you won’t have much chance on getting in the group. Burnzerkers are great, even if you have a bunch in your group.
Having 2 warriors in a group to cover banners for both squads is ideal, but even after you cover this, additional burnzerkers can bring different utility skills that will boost their personal dps or give more options for handling breakbars.
Now…that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nerf hammer strikes burnzerkers on the next balance patch. If it does, they may still be a great choice, but considering the cost of building a full set of vipers/sinister gear, it would suck if you went through all the trouble of gearing a condi set for a warrior only to see it get nerfed too hard and pushed to the back of the line in terms of meta builds.
I expect the nerf hammer to hit Chronos more than Burnzerkers.
I’m sure they’ll make an adjustment so that distortion doesn’t allow groups to bypass mechanics, like the green circles. However, I don’t expect anything else to really nerf them in PvE.
Dinosaurs pretty much nailed it. I would mention that a good dragonhunter can also manage green circle duty on VG without too much of a DPS loss, which is something. =P
Overall, if you just want to roll an alt to get a spot in a raid, a burnzerker is currently your best bet. Chronos and druids are great, but if that role’s already covered, you won’t have much chance on getting in the group. Burnzerkers are great, even if you have a bunch in your group.
Having 2 warriors in a group to cover banners for both squads is ideal, but even after you cover this, additional burnzerkers can bring different utility skills that will boost their personal dps or give more options for handling breakbars.
Now…that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nerf hammer strikes burnzerkers on the next balance patch. If it does, they may still be a great choice, but considering the cost of building a full set of vipers/sinister gear, it would suck if you went through all the trouble of gearing a condi set for a warrior only to see it get nerfed too hard and pushed to the back of the line in terms of meta builds.
I expect the nerf hammer to hit Chronos more than Burnzerkers.
I’m sure they’ll make an adjustment so that distortion doesn’t allow groups to bypass mechanics, like the green circles. However, I don’t expect anything else to really nerf them in PvE.
Alacrity and Quickness I think, these are too easy to apply constantly.
They overlooked the facet of nature+sigil+chrono combo. It’s quite the big oversight if you ask me :/
Dinosaurs pretty much nailed it. I would mention that a good dragonhunter can also manage green circle duty on VG without too much of a DPS loss, which is something. =P
Overall, if you just want to roll an alt to get a spot in a raid, a burnzerker is currently your best bet. Chronos and druids are great, but if that role’s already covered, you won’t have much chance on getting in the group. Burnzerkers are great, even if you have a bunch in your group.
Having 2 warriors in a group to cover banners for both squads is ideal, but even after you cover this, additional burnzerkers can bring different utility skills that will boost their personal dps or give more options for handling breakbars.
Now…that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nerf hammer strikes burnzerkers on the next balance patch. If it does, they may still be a great choice, but considering the cost of building a full set of vipers/sinister gear, it would suck if you went through all the trouble of gearing a condi set for a warrior only to see it get nerfed too hard and pushed to the back of the line in terms of meta builds.
I expect the nerf hammer to hit Chronos more than Burnzerkers.
I’m sure they’ll make an adjustment so that distortion doesn’t allow groups to bypass mechanics, like the green circles. However, I don’t expect anything else to really nerf them in PvE.
Alacrity and Quickness I think, these are too easy to apply constantly.
They’re easy to apply, but they’re the counter balance to mesmer’s low personal dps. I seriously hope they don’t change this since mesmers are one of the few professions that fill a unique role like this. There’s enough homogenous damage builds and very, very few viable support builds.
Dinosaurs pretty much nailed it. I would mention that a good dragonhunter can also manage green circle duty on VG without too much of a DPS loss, which is something. =P
Overall, if you just want to roll an alt to get a spot in a raid, a burnzerker is currently your best bet. Chronos and druids are great, but if that role’s already covered, you won’t have much chance on getting in the group. Burnzerkers are great, even if you have a bunch in your group.
Having 2 warriors in a group to cover banners for both squads is ideal, but even after you cover this, additional burnzerkers can bring different utility skills that will boost their personal dps or give more options for handling breakbars.
Now…that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nerf hammer strikes burnzerkers on the next balance patch. If it does, they may still be a great choice, but considering the cost of building a full set of vipers/sinister gear, it would suck if you went through all the trouble of gearing a condi set for a warrior only to see it get nerfed too hard and pushed to the back of the line in terms of meta builds.
I expect the nerf hammer to hit Chronos more than Burnzerkers.
I’m sure they’ll make an adjustment so that distortion doesn’t allow groups to bypass mechanics, like the green circles. However, I don’t expect anything else to really nerf them in PvE.
Alacrity and Quickness I think, these are too easy to apply constantly.
They’re easy to apply, but they’re the counter balance to mesmer’s low personal dps. I seriously hope they don’t change this since mesmers are one of the few professions that fill a unique role like this. There’s enough homogenous damage builds and very, very few viable support builds.
So you’re saying the amount of quickness a single chrono can throw around is reasonable?
Dinosaurs pretty much nailed it. I would mention that a good dragonhunter can also manage green circle duty on VG without too much of a DPS loss, which is something. =P
Overall, if you just want to roll an alt to get a spot in a raid, a burnzerker is currently your best bet. Chronos and druids are great, but if that role’s already covered, you won’t have much chance on getting in the group. Burnzerkers are great, even if you have a bunch in your group.
Having 2 warriors in a group to cover banners for both squads is ideal, but even after you cover this, additional burnzerkers can bring different utility skills that will boost their personal dps or give more options for handling breakbars.
Now…that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nerf hammer strikes burnzerkers on the next balance patch. If it does, they may still be a great choice, but considering the cost of building a full set of vipers/sinister gear, it would suck if you went through all the trouble of gearing a condi set for a warrior only to see it get nerfed too hard and pushed to the back of the line in terms of meta builds.
I expect the nerf hammer to hit Chronos more than Burnzerkers.
I’m sure they’ll make an adjustment so that distortion doesn’t allow groups to bypass mechanics, like the green circles. However, I don’t expect anything else to really nerf them in PvE.
Alacrity and Quickness I think, these are too easy to apply constantly.
They’re easy to apply, but they’re the counter balance to mesmer’s low personal dps. I seriously hope they don’t change this since mesmers are one of the few professions that fill a unique role like this. There’s enough homogenous damage builds and very, very few viable support builds.
So you’re saying the amount of quickness a single chrono can throw around is reasonable?
I don’t think the issue is how much or how little quickness a chrono can produce. I think there’s imbalance related to how much a chrono can produce vs other professions, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. To some degree, imbalances are good in that they differentiate professions.
The real question is whether the imbalance causes harm and there’s two sides to this:
1) Is there harm from the imbalance?
and
2) Is there less harm in changing this?
To answer 1, I think that the only real harm is wrapped up in bosses going down to fast from truly optimized groups. This is part of a much larger problem and groups with full quickness aren’t always killing bosses too fast, so it’s not just quickness to blame.
Compare this to something like the burnzerker imbalance which has another harm: Multiple raid spots are best filled by just 1 build. With a chrono, you really don’t want more than 1 chrono (unless you’re using 2 to distortion through green circles), which is a problem for chronos in the other direction. I’ll touch more on that in a bit. However, a group that wants to do its best will fill a lot of spots with burnzerkers. This means that a lot of raid diversity is lost to this imbalance.
To answer 2, I think there’s a lot of risk of killing off the use of chronos to a raid. Chronos have pretty weak personal dps, which is why groups never want more than they need to provide quickness/alacrity. This puts them just barely above thieves/guardians who struggle to merit a single spot in a group. While I don’t think that a nerf to quickness inherently kills off a chrono’s use to a raid, it’s could easily do this if they’re either too heavy handed or don’t offset this by adjusting mesmer personal dps.