Guild Wars 2

Sup all,

Only just hit 80 on my Engineer and have yet to even attempt dungeons in gw2, definitely going to level an alt purely for pve but would love to first find out everyone’s thoughts on ideal setups?

So far I understand thief is used for single target damage and stealth whilst warrior is used for pure raw cleave along with elementalist. I think these 3 are the top classes damage wise? Then support from what I understand is a mix between mesmer and guardian?

Let’s see who’s more of a fan of what then, levelling is a nightmare but once I have a keen idea of what each class is useful for, then it’ll make the end goal a tad more appealing.

1) if you ever plan to do fractals you’ll want a guardian. above 29 its kitten near a requirement.
2) warrior/ranger are the easiest to play, really simple mechanics and basic builds.
3) thief is hard mode, play at own risk.

every other class is a variation of meh. none are really excellent at anything, but none are really bad at anything.

Warrior is brought for its offensive buffing from both banners and might generation through PS. It also has vuln application which can be bursted with OMM while doing reflects at lupi.
Guard/Mes are your reflect and utility classe. Guard bringing blinds, aegis, reflects and some cleansing as well as good damage. Mes bringing lots of reflects, good cleansing, good burst but mediocre average damage and a good pull, plus power block on bosses.
Thief has good cleave, lots of blinds and ridiculous single target damage as well as easy access to smoke fields and plenty of blasts.
Elementalist has good might generation in s/f, excellent aoe damage with staff which becomes stronger the larger the bosses hitbox, as well as amazing vuln stacking with glyph of storms.
Engineer has very good sustained vuln as well as access to smoke fields, reflects, easy blasts and a pull if traited. All of the attacks used in the current meta rotation are aoes/cones.
Ranger has good damage, reflects with offhand axe as well as a pull, a longer fire field, permanent fury if you lack an ele plus spotter and frost spirit for unique buffs. Also some vuln and possible might from pets. The AA chain takes practice.
Necro has weak cleave, but good damage. Unfortunately it lacks group support outside of vuln application and 1 blast finisher on a minion utility which you don’t want to get stuck in combat with.

^^ SlyDevil’s list is great.

Warriors are not in the top 3 damage wise, at least on paper. When you get to practical situations that can change as warriors are quite easy to play compared to many other professions. As an Engineer you may have figured out that it’s quite hard to get their optimal rotation down, so while they can have higher damage than a warrior, you have to be a pretty good engi to beat a mediocre warrior. Also, don’t forget about blinds, blinds are awesome, and a very good reason to have a thief.

If you’re asking what we like best, personally it’s Engi, I love the rotation and very active play. I love the diversity of skills where we can shore up any lacking area of a group. It’s not part of the perfect team in most cases, but it’s never a bad option regardless of composition.

If I were you, I’d be asking myself what role I like playing. If you like defense/support stuff Guard’s your man, maybe mesmer. If you like to just be a general kitten not relying on others, warrior is tough to beat. It’s hard to describe thief without just saying, if you like to play a thief, play the thief, stealthy stealthy blind blind, stab stab. If you want to do it all and blow up everything in your way Ele and Engi will suite you nicely. If you like pets, ranger or mesmer, ranger especially if you like jumping off cliffs as you attack. And if you enjoy death and depression, necro’s your thing.

KaosNinja.4967:

3) thief is hard mode, play at own risk.

I actually find Thief quite nice, and easy compared to Ele. If I’m feeling like a baddie I can always swap S/P, trait Invigorating Precision with Signet heal and lifesteal food and well, anything but a one shot is no problem. The low defense can make more things a one shot but pair it with Feline Grace and dodge for days, run out, no worries your Signet of Agility which you’ll almost always be using can refill you for another 3 dodges. Add in black powder during trash and well, thieves are pretty solid defensively.

Awesome replies thanks so far! Yup definitely love my Engineer though as you say the rotation is hard. I’ll need to practise for awhile to shut that down.

Well I LOVE playing my Ranger but understand they’re hated and have to play melee. I find it fast paced and great solo which is what I love at times as grouping isn’t always an option. I also love how the guardian plays but trying to level one is a kitten nightmare, especially after playing a ranger, everything feels slow and boring!

Engineer is my Jack of all trades, I’m just looking into something possibly required for groups, entertaining to play and versatile in choice. Damage, support, defence. Ranged or melee, doesn’t matter.

A single warrior for every group is a good idea.

Thieves are always welcome with their high damage, blinds, and stealth, thanks to the higher damage 2 isn’t really frowned upon like a warrior, but in casual grouping 2 warriors isn’t really bad either.

Guardian is the defensive king, I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone frown at a guardian joining the party unless you already have one, or worse multiple. And as for leveling them, Sword/Focus + Greatsword. When you Whirling Wrath try to get inside the target circle of the enemy such that the projectiles and the melee strikes hit the target for more damage. Sure you lack the ability to blow things up while you’re still running at them, but you can do soemthing like Focus5, then Sword2 when you’re close enough to teleport to them, then swap GS and walk inside them and whirling wrath… often this alone will kill your targets, if not continue your rotation. I look back and I’d have agree’d with your feelings when I leveled up my guardian, but now, I don’t know, knowing the right approach changes things. Ohh and have a group of enemies, well do that, then don’t walk inside, but instead position yourself such that you can binding blades them together and pull them in, then whirling wrath the group, even better if they shoot projectiles and you can drop a wall to make them help kill themselves. Again, the approach is everything.

That said, Rangers are sweet, but yes, you and everyone is expected to melee in dungeons, not doing so is simply bad in many ways. Ele is the only profession capable of doing their max damage at range, but doing so can cause the enemy to chase them meaning less damage for your teammates, or worse things. But, rangers are good, frost spirit and SPotter being nice team buffs, you have blasts, esp warhorn being a nice team buff (though not meta). Personally my big turnoff for them is the sword auto attack can be incredibly frustrating and it’s just by far your best option(well and I’m not a big fan of static pet classes). Thanks to synergy with traiting using it and getting the cripple bumps your dps 10% higher, so the ~7% gain it is on GS can really be a 17% gap, quite a difference. I do like their GS though.

From what you said I’d honestly suggest guard, you have the defensive/support strengths, but you can shed them to still do great offense. And even if you want to go ranged, scepter is often pretty decent, just i’d refer to my earlier comment on melee/ranged. And, like I said, you’re almost never not wanted, maybe not necessarily wanted but you can do fine.

Jerus.4350:

A single warrior for every group is a good idea.

Thieves are always welcome with their high damage, blinds, and stealth, thanks to the higher damage 2 isn’t really frowned upon like a warrior, but in casual grouping 2 warriors isn’t really bad either.

Guardian is the defensive king, I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone frown at a guardian joining the party unless you already have one, or worse multiple. And as for leveling them, Sword/Focus + Greatsword. When you Whirling Wrath try to get inside the target circle of the enemy such that the projectiles and the melee strikes hit the target for more damage. Sure you lack the ability to blow things up while you’re still running at them, but you can do soemthing like Focus5, then Sword2 when you’re close enough to teleport to them, then swap GS and walk inside them and whirling wrath… often this alone will kill your targets, if not continue your rotation. I look back and I’d have agree’d with your feelings when I leveled up my guardian, but now, I don’t know, knowing the right approach changes things. Ohh and have a group of enemies, well do that, then don’t walk inside, but instead position yourself such that you can binding blades them together and pull them in, then whirling wrath the group, even better if they shoot projectiles and you can drop a wall to make them help kill themselves. Again, the approach is everything.

That said, Rangers are sweet, but yes, you and everyone is expected to melee in dungeons, not doing so is simply bad in many ways. Ele is the only profession capable of doing their max damage at range, but doing so can cause the enemy to chase them meaning less damage for your teammates, or worse things. But, rangers are good, frost spirit and SPotter being nice team buffs, you have blasts, esp warhorn being a nice team buff (though not meta). Personally my big turnoff for them is the sword auto attack can be incredibly frustrating and it’s just by far your best option(well and I’m not a big fan of static pet classes). Thanks to synergy with traiting using it and getting the cripple bumps your dps 10% higher, so the ~7% gain it is on GS can really be a 17% gap, quite a difference. I do like their GS though.

From what you said I’d honestly suggest guard, you have the defensive/support strengths, but you can shed them to still do great offense. And even if you want to go ranged, scepter is often pretty decent, just i’d refer to my earlier comment on melee/ranged. And, like I said, you’re almost never not wanted, maybe not necessarily wanted but you can do fine.

So Ranger is a fun idea but the sword AA isn’t ideal. I have to admit I did find s/a fun when levelling the leap is awesome and the pet tank just makes life so much more relaxing.

Guardian. My issue with guardian is suffering through the first 30 levels Until it starts to get better haha. But it does look like the class I’d probably enjoy the most. GS and sword for levelling, will try this for sure and see how it goes.

Still, worthwhile levelling up the ranger? Just as its so easy to level its a breath of fresh air lol, so relaxed and care free

Never judge a class based on the leveling experience.

Lendruil.9061:

Never judge a class based on the leveling experience.

True this, best to bite the bullet and grind to 80 then try some dungeons, should probably attempt dungeons whilst levelling also unlike with my engineer.

KaosNinja.4967:

1) if you ever plan to do fractals you’ll want a guardian. above 29 its kitten near a requirement.

Lolwut

Umm… no… definitely not. They make everything easier regardless of what level it is but I have no idea what leads you to believe that 30 and up needs guards…

Purple Miku.7032:

KaosNinja.4967:

1) if you ever plan to do fractals you’ll want a guardian. above 29 its kitten near a requirement.

Lolwut

Umm… no… definitely not. They make everything easier regardless of what level it is but I have no idea what leads you to believe that 30 and up needs guards…

I assume some see it as a breakpoint lol. I can see how guard would make everything easier though. Such a safe class.

Yeah, you can do Wall of Reflection then at 22s on it’s recast you summon your Shield of the Avenger, by the time that goes down Wall of reflection is back down, you en up with like 44s of projectiles defense IIRC. Certainly a nice thing, especially in some fractals. If it’s a weak group hammer build for perma protection is great, some stability, and of course Aegis. A well played guardian can make the most mediocre of groups seem good.

But, Miku is right, they’re far from a requirement, just makes things easier.

You can certainly level your ranger, and personally I leveled all professions to 80 and some doubles. I think it’s worth it. Just IMO Guard fits your needs better, but there are many that LOVE rangers, so I wouldn’t say it’s bad at all, just not my personal taste. Again, it has a nice niche with it’s profession specific buffs and not bad damage with some worthwhile utility. Not something I’d pick in an ideal group, but like the Engi, not something I’d shun from a group either (though personally I find Engi to be hands down better I just felt the need to say that).

That makes guardian sound a lot nicer in my eyes for sure. Will definitely level the guardian then the ranger afterwards. Took me moooonths to get the engineer to 80, the ranger would take no time at all as its such a breeze to level, guardian a lot slower but gotta grind it!

Cool so guard isn’t a requirement but it helps ease the flow in most groups. I’d assume for the elites its more a mix of thief warr ele

Sort of, it’s like Thief + War + Mesmer if you were to use other professions to exemplify it. Thief/war doesnt’ do it justice, and it lacks a lot of their specialized tools. So I don’t really see it a good summary. You have your support tools which is your strength, but then you can do good damage as well, and it’s not overly complicated but precise timing is certainly something that is required to master it.

Awesome, cool answers thanks so the role of the meaner and thief? Is thief mostly the blinds/stealth then single target damage?

Thief brings good cleave with s/p on mobs, then d/d for high dmg on bosses(or if the mobs are 1-2 enemies). Do the pvp dailies to get easy tomes of knowledge each day.

Aye what Sly said, Dagger cleaves 2 targets, Sword will catch more. Though while those are your two main combat setups, personally I almost always keep my shortbow on swap and just manually change between those two for what is coming up, or even D/P.

As far as roles go, Blind, Stealth, and CC. The CC thing will be changing soon with the removal of the defiance system, however you have the potential to help with the breakbar as well. Also really nice to help preblast might with shortbow.

Outside of that you can also aid with projectile defense with Smoke Screen and Daggerstorm. Scorpion Wire has some nice uses. Your teleports lets you do some cool tricks like Arah orbs. YOu can condi cleanse with Signet of Agility as well as provide endurance. So beyond your base role there are some more specialized tools you have for certain encounters that can be a lot of fun.

I assume “meaner” = “Mesmer?”

If so, you’re support. You can set up reflect with Feedback or trait for Warden’s Feedback and your Temporal curtain and Wardens gain reflect allowing a very solid coverage if you time things right. In the Meta groups mesmer is typically used for portal tricks, but that’s pretty advanced coordination that you won’t see utilized by most groups. You can also do a bit of condi cleanse, you have some great CC, and you have the best/most practical boon stripping. Boon stripping doesn’t come up often, but when it does mesmer is hands down the best, while necro has some great rips they’re more bursty while mesmer just auto attacks with sword and strips much of it, phantasmal disenchanter and most every encounter that I can think of is covered.

Mesmer is a very tricky profession, a well played mesmer is kitten amazing at times, a poorly played one is very… meh…

Ohh and I forgot to mention Time Warp, yeah group quickness is nice.

Yeah sorry meant Mesmer, autocorrect is a Pita.

So what is the Best way to get tomes? I generally spam Spvp on my ranger and engi as its almost always a win lol

sPVP is best for tomes. Outside of that maybe some other daily stuff, like IIRC Fractal 1-10 daily gives it, and those are fun if you have the time, though PUGing can be hell as there are some more intricate mechanics that you have to understand to get through things.

You do make thief sound much more high paced and enjoyable, think the squishyness would irk me though. Mesmer sounds fab but I think my skills lie more in guard ranger thief esque play

Ehh, honestly IMO thief is a bit bland outside of it’s tricks. The tricks are awesome, the toolset is fun, but when it comes down to a fight you’re mainly just circling to keep the back and timing your Cloak and Dagger (stealth strike) so you can backstab, then heartseekering at the end.

I actually find the guard rotation to be more fun and fluid with more alternative rotations and weaponry.

Where Thief simplified is basically this: Cloak and Dagger → Backstab → Full auto Chain → first 2 skills of the Auto chain and then repeat

Then at 25% you sub in Heartseeker for the CnD/BS to maintain initiative, or go faster by removing the full auto chain.

Note: this may not actually be max DPS just what I always did, so smarter people, feel free to correct me

For Guardian you do something like:
Whirling Wrath → Symbol of Wrath → Leap of Faith → Binding Blades → Auto until WW is back up then swap to alternate set.

Alternate set could be Sword/Focus or Mace/Focus as your primary 2 options.

Sword: Focus 4→ Focus 5 → Auto attack until weapon swap is up, finish the auto chain your are in and swap

Mace: Symbol of Faith → Focus4 → Focus 5 → Auto until Symbol of Faith is up → Swap, note you can also work in Protector’s Strike if you see an incoming attack and know you can catch it quickly, used with precise timing and it’s nice damage.

So with Thief it’s IMO a bit more simple, the timing is key and I’m not trying to downplay it’s fun, just to me I find it a bit more bland that the Guardian rotation that spans more skills used with weapon swaps worked in. With the upcoming Guardian changes it will become even more intricate with having to maintain symbol uptime, it should be loads of fun trying to perfectly rotate while you slip in your defensive/support skills to survive.

But, that’s just my take on it, I don’t really feel thief is any faster paced than a guardian.

Ohh and a quick add, Guardian is quite squishy as well, you have your natural aegis to help on one hit, but after that it’s active defenses that you focus on, thief has evades guardians have blocks, aegis’s can be nice with their longer window allowing you to trigger one blocking the next hit even if it’s a few seconds away. But just saying their health levels are the same and I wouldn’t say Guardian is really less squishy.

Ah fair enough. I still have my engineer to master hahaha. Ranger and guardian will hopefully be dungeon friendly alts.

Just want to say, no reason your engi can’t do dungeons! Love it, I suggest working on the rotation, but if it’s a bit troublesome there are alternatives.

Haha I love my Engineer, but I do still get bored and like to swap around. Also cba buying char slots so will get my army and stick with it. Always love mixing up pvp, pve etc… Engineer, guardian, ranger, elementalist and possibly thief awesome tips though thanks all

D/D rotation is CnD→ backstab→ 1 auto chain→ CnD. The cast time on CnD occurs when revealed runs out, so you end up striking right after the debuff disappears.

SlyDevil.3952:

D/D rotation is CnD-> backstab-> 1 auto chain-> CnD. The cast time on CnD occurs when revealed runs out, so you end up striking right after the debuff disappears.

I thought you wanted those two strikes as they were quick enough to be worth it, but maybe I read wrong. I knew what you said was a possibility but shifted a while back having read that the 2 extra attacks was actually superior.

If you found leveling a pain there is several little trick.

If you gonna eventually get all your crafting profession you can do them on your low level character. I did that 2 years ago and they changed how it work since, but you could probably get to 20-40 just by doing your 2 crafting profession (up to 400 is cheap, to 500 is a little expensive).

You can also do some EotM. I find it boring, and a efficient map can be hard to find, but it’s the faster way to level up while playing. It also level super quickly your wvw level and karma.

You can switch character at the end of a dungeon (don’t work with all path) so you do the all the dungeon on your level 80, kill the boss, then switch to a low level character to get all the xp on this one. You just need to have someone holding the cutscene, but people are use to that kind of demand in pugs. That a little bit less fast than EotM, but it doesn’t feel like a grind at all.

Each crafting profession is 7 levels. Do 1-20 without crafting, the xp gain at those levels is increased exponentially, and slowly reduced back down to actual xp rewards. Ie. lvl 1 is 200% xp gain, and by the time you hit lvl 20 you are at 100% xp gain.

I have to admit I haven’t even looked at crafting but I might give it a go. Will 5 gold get me far? Do I have to go and gather to do crafting or can I market it all? How do I do it? Just go to the tradeskiller learn it and go?

Adjust.6903:

I have to admit I haven’t even looked at crafting but I might give it a go. Will 5 gold get me far? Do I have to go and gather to do crafting or can I market it all? How do I do it? Just go to the tradeskiller learn it and go?

gw2crafts.com iirc is the best guide. It costs a fair bit of gold, cooking being cheapest by far IIRC.

I wouldn’t recommend thief for pve, especially if you are starting with dungeons. It’s squishy and need active defence to survive. If the party isn’t good, you might be able to solo some stuff but you can’t carry them as well as guard would. Also, some dungeons have parts where most assume the thief in party either knows the skips and cds on his skills or where he should solo certain parts. People often mess up stealthing up and it’s just pita for the thief to get others successfully skip anything. Some will ignore stealth completely, either out of dislike to thief class or just cos they are a ps warrior and don’t care who goes down to mobs they pulled when rushing ahead on a skip.

Warrior has okay dps and is easy to play, if you like yawnnn… boring gameplay, go for it.

Engi is awesome but takes a while to get into the awesome level, some haters out there sometimes kick or lfg no engi.

Guard is the almighty boon bot everyone loves, the inexperienced groups will ascend to the “dungeon completed” level with a guard in party You would need to know when to use certain skills but generally people will live as long as you are around. Really nice class to learn dungeons with.

Ele – dps queen warriors look up with deep envy and hopes HoT will fix it. Not so great for learning dungeons as the class is squishy, but not bad either.

I avoid parties with necros mainly cos even if they have 15k AP, they fear EVERYTHING.

Btw, when you level, once you hit lvl appropriate for the first 3 dungeon stories, do those daily, they are fairly fast to do and the xp is nice, loot (especially CM for linen) is okay too.

Jayden Ennok.3687:

I wouldn’t recommend thief for pve, especially if you are starting with dungeons. It’s squishy and need active defence to survive. If the party isn’t good, you might be able to solo some stuff but you can’t carry them as well as guard would. Also, some dungeons have parts where most assume the thief in party either knows the skips and cds on his skills or where he should solo certain parts. People often mess up stealthing up and it’s just pita for the thief to get others successfully skip anything. Some will ignore stealth completely, either out of dislike to thief class or just cos they are a ps warrior and don’t care who goes down to mobs they pulled when rushing ahead on a skip.

Warrior has okay dps and is easy to play, if you like yawnnn… boring gameplay, go for it.

Engi is awesome but takes a while to get into the awesome level, some haters out there sometimes kick or lfg no engi.

Guard is the almighty boon bot everyone loves, the inexperienced groups will ascend to the “dungeon completed” level with a guard in party You would need to know when to use certain skills but generally people will live as long as you are around. Really nice class to learn dungeons with.

Ele – dps queen warriors look up with deep envy and hopes HoT will fix it. Not so great for learning dungeons as the class is squishy, but not bad either.

I avoid parties with necros mainly cos even if they have 15k AP, they fear EVERYTHING.

Btw, when you level, once you hit lvl appropriate for the first 3 dungeon stories, do those daily, they are fairly fast to do and the xp is nice, loot (especially CM for linen) is okay too.

Nice thanks for all of that! My current account I think I’m generally happy with. Ele, thief, mesmer, engi, guard. Engineer being my only 80 thus far. Thief being more of a PvP class with the ele and Mesmer. Guardian will priba my be my best 80. Guard or mesmer.