Guild Wars 2

Hello!

I’m looking for a change of pace. I thought I’d never get the gold to get another character full ascended, but it seems I should be able to in a short while.

I’m an experienced wing 1 druid healer, now looking for something else.

Can anything be said about either chrono or dh being more difficult to play? I probably won’t be pugging a lot anymore because I’ll be doing raids with guilds which are semi-experienced.

Do you find either more fun to play, and why?

Would either be more popular to have, considering both wings? I know about chrono tanking VG, was wondering about both wing 1 and 2 all together

In my experience chrono is the more difficult one. Keeping the quickness up while staying alive is somewhat harder than just swinging your hammer while staying alive. Both can bring some tricks (pulls/blocks/invulnerability/cc) that good players can use for great effect.
Both of them can be fun, depending on the players definition on fun.
Pugs prefer chronos in both wings. In w1 almost every group has 1 (tank at vg/gors, quickness), in w2 groups often have 2 (distortion, reflect, pulls, quickness at sloth; pulls for trash at trio; reflect+quickness at matt). Dragonhunters are quiet helpful in w1 (higher dps than chrono, short quickness, perma protection, good/awesome cc) but a lot of groups run without. In w2 they are used a little more often (reflect, shield of courage block, cc, prot, pulls for sloth; pulls, cc on saboteur at trio; reflect, block, cc at matt). Still you often have groups looking for a chrono for their last slot, seldom/never for a dh.

Chronomancers are always in demand, for raids it seems as if they are one of the least played classes. You give perma quickness and alacrity and if you chrono tank in wing one you can open up another slot in your team for more dps.

I reccomend chronotank because in wing 2 aggro isn’t based on toughness so commanders is still beneficial there and you don’t even have to switch stats.

Dragonhunter is good, but chrono is in super high demand. Adding a chrono to your list of classes will get you in the most raids.

Personally, however, I find the only thing fun about chrono is pulling enemies with focus 4. The base quickness rotation is not fun at all.

I usually play chrono on raids since i have more experience on it but lets be serious… swinging that hammer like there’s no tomorrow and watching the numbers pop is a lot of fun. Utility on dh is also exceptionally good but man the hammer is love.

Chrono are high demand for groups but weak individually as mesmer is the lowest DPS class in game with poor tagging and aoe properties for open world and pvp.

So it stays a rare, on de mand class because it’s virtually a complete support class dependent on having allies around to perform.

If you prefer to be self-sufficient in the DPS department, dragonhunter is much better. You’ll have to choose between popularity or individual performance.

If your looking to raid with the second class I highly suggest the chrono as well. The reasons are that if people know you have a druid, they will never let you be a Dragon hunter but they will let you be a chrono depending on what they can find. Also in wing two, most people will be using two druids so it gets even harder to be allowed to play something else unless it is a high in demand class that not many play.

In my experience Chronomancer is one of the hardest class to play well in raids, if not the hardest outright. For certain fights the difference between a good chrono and a bad one has a larger impact than on any other class.

Of course, this also means that chronos are generally in high demand so finding a group isn’t tough.

DH on the other hand is really easy to play well. Your DPS rotation is mostly pressing 1, and you don’t do much outside of DPS and break. In wing 2 you will also have to use reflects, stability, and F1 pulls occasionally, but it isn’t particularly hard. Some groups will bring a DH to most of the fights, but some people really don’t like it for whatever reason.

Something else to consider is sharing gear with future characters. DH runs zerker trinkets and backpack, which can be shared with any power class. You can also share the armor with a revenant and (kindof) a warrior. So if you gear up a DH then congratulations, your revenant now has full ascended armor and trinkets as well.

Mesmer on the other hand can share almost nothing. There are a lot of variations in mesmer gear setups, but no matter what you will be using runes of the chronomancer when means your armor cannot be shared. You will also likely be having at least some of your trinkets/backpack be exotic with platinum doubloons for extra boon duration, which are obviously unshareable. On the plus side, exotic trinkets and backpack are easier to get than ascended, so you will save a bit of gold and laurels there.

This is important because you can debate all you want about which class is better for finding a group, but do you know what’s really popular? Having lots of classes that you can play.

Really, if you’re joining a guild group then the correct answer is to make whatever your group needs. If they only have 1 chrono player right now then making that would obviously be a priority.

Well thanks a lot everyone for the answers! Very helpful. Gives me way more insight then I had.

Last but not least statement is also very important yes, I should ask the guilds I play in what would be of more use to them. And I will.

Leaning towards dragonhunter now, maybe despite the answers stated above.
I’m also thinking a bit long-term, if I would maybe play this second character at other contents, and I probably would like to. Dungeons, maybe some fractals though I never got the hang of fractals really thus far, and HoT meta events. Seems the current dragonhunter gearing is more suited for that than mesmer’s.

I also feel the druid healing role, which I am used to, isn’t very easy compared to other professions/roles in raids, I would like another character where I can work a bit less hard. Mesmer seems more challenging then dragonhunter. Correct me if I’m wrong though.

So if the guilds I play with would (strongly) recommend chrono, I’ll go for chrono, otherwise dragonhunter.

Again, thanks!

If you want a challenge that involves managing lots of cooldowns, go chrono.

If you want a more laid back role that can rely primarily on autoattacks, go DH.

Also, keep in mind that the PvP whiny brats are hellbent on getting Chronomancer demolished with nerfs, while they’re campaigning for Dragonhunter buffs.

And this game is wholly balanced on their e-sport PvP garbage, so your experience as a PvE player will be subject to the whims of the PvP populace.

Thanks for the additive, I’ll take it in account