Guild Wars 2

What is your favorite party composition?
for dungeons/fracktals and why?
please state reasons and grade each class starting from most important to less needed please rate all prodessions

My list (ABC order)

1st tier
Elementalist – frost bow, fury, AoE Dmg, Might
Guardian – mass stability, reflects, aegis, condy cleans
Warior – Baner of discipline, Might

2nd tier
Thief -stelt, Blast finishers, defience cleanse

3th tier
(very effective but harder to play right)
Engy – AoE dmg vulnerabilyty stack, party suport
Mesmer – reflects, quilness
Ranger – spotter, Frost spirit

last
Necro – mass stability,

I’d like to see what other ppl think on the pve party composition before the expansion. And where woud the new specialisations and profesion get on ower top party lists

1st tier
Warrior – because i main warrior

2nd tier
4 other players

Me and four other nice people who are playing to have fun.

really depends on the dungeon. I think my guild found that every class serves some sort of purpose.

For example TA – Aetherblade path, if your party will be going down a lot (especially on clockheart when he throws a spinning gear on you, or throws you into the middle), having search and rescue + spirits as a secondary revive is VERY useful.

In Arah Lupi with walls > Lupi without walls (so mesmers and guardians)

majority of places, like CM and TA for example, mass invisibility is useful as helper in skipping. So thieves and engineers.

Either way, every dungeon can be cleared on any composition. But if everyone has multiple characters to choose from and try out different compositions, it’s most definitely more fun to strategise that way

Me and 4 guildies.

tier 1:
4 skilled people who can carry me.

tier 2:
myself.

I kid, I kid…

…or am I?

1st tier:
Ele – might/fury, bow, dps, vuln, blind
Thief – defiance removing, stealth, blasts, dps
Guard – aegis, wall/shield, condition removing, stability, dps

2nd tier:
Warrior – warhorn, banners, vuln
Engi – might, vuln, explosions
Mesmer – mesploits, reflects

3rd tier:
Ranger – frost spirit, spotter
Necro – dark field + icebow combo

1 Warrior
1 Guardian
1 Thief
2 Elementalists

doesnt apply to EVERY dungeon path & fractal ofc but most times this is the best i think

Tier 1:
Guardian Tank with heals.
Mesmer with Aoe and Conditions
Elementalist with Conjure and Staff
Warrior with Hammer and Greatsword
Mesmer with AoE and Utility.

Tier 2:
Guardian DPS with Utility
Warrior with banners and PS
Thief DPS and stealth
Necro Conditions and Wells
Ranger with Greatsword and Utility.

That Tank Guardian though.
I just personally Don’t like some things, engineer is one of those things.
And awkward “fun builds” are imo meant more for open world and not dungeons.
Have fun on your own time not others.
I hope you noticed I didn’t mention Timewarp, might stacking (besides PS but that doesn’t count), or optimal DPS output.

Not to mention the use of conditions is in there. For the longest time my favorite class was my Nomad Cleric Guardian. No one ever died haha.

I really like five alert, attentive players with solid internet connections who know their profession/build and the content being attempted.

I’ll settle for anybody who listens to directions and will fess up when they don’t know something. I can train that kind of anybody.

@Nike Above all People who listen are the best players of any type of person. I don’t care if someones got the best build in the world, if he is running off Rambo soloing the dungeon I’ll most likely kick him and tell him to solo it himself.

Four people who are confident, knowledgable and relaxed about the upcoming run.

But for classses, a blend of war/guard/ele. And thief if needed.

I mostly do pug so my tier 1 is guardian/warrior.

Just because the average guardian/warrior plays better.

I personally like to play guardian for the reflect. Warrior or necro is ok too, just because it’s easier to rez dead player if you are tanky.

1st Tier
Elementalist LH
Elementalist LH
Elementalist d/f ib
Elementalist d/f ib
Elementalist Staff

2nd Tier
Elementalist
3rd Tier
Elementalist

yolo

Me and four other people who are honest if they haven’t done the fight/dungeon/ etc before and ask for an explanation.

Why? Because I’ll take people willing to learn and competent (or at least trying) over someone who is impatient and complaining all the time because of team comp.

Riku.4821:

Tier 1:
Guardian Tank with heals.
Mesmer with Aoe and Conditions
Elementalist with Conjure and Staff
Warrior with Hammer and Greatsword
Mesmer with AoE and Utility.

Tier 2:
Guardian DPS with Utility
Warrior with banners and PS
Thief DPS and stealth
Necro Conditions and Wells
Ranger with Greatsword and Utility.

What game type/what criteria is this list based on? I ask because it slightly surprises me relative to the situations I’m normally in. Except staff elementalist, staff eles are always cool imo.

And what is your definition of AoE? I never included cleaves and bounce myself, but if you do it makes more sense.

My list for straight up fighting (my fav content)
2 identical mesmers, running different builds
1 Thief(/ranger) skirmishing spike
1 Staff elementalist, not glass. If it is identical to the mesmers, awesome.
1 Guardian

Not optimal probably, but the idea is to confuse the other team with mesmers, Guardian providing a center piece, thief to quickly take out the weak then disappear and elementalist to provide area control

i think one half of the people is talking about PvE compositions
and the other half of the people is talking about PvP compositions

I prefer relaxed people who actually communicate.

In my opinion all classes are very viable, except necros.
For example, a skilled ranger will always be better than a second warrior. Guardians are a bit overrated, but a solid zerk guard is always great. Stacking eles is naturally great etc etc. If the player is skilled only necros are falling behind, even so they can do 75% what thieves can do if they are not some useless condi spec.

@Snow – General use, Dungeons, Map Complete, events.
Aoe as in Mesmer Greatsword phantasm and mind stab, Elementalist skills etc.
I am having a hard time with how it surprises you tbh haha.

Test.8734:

Me and four other nice people who are playing to have fun.

Took words right out of my mouth.

Sina.9208:

In my opinion all classes are very viable, except necros.

Ironically most of my pug dungeon run is faster when I play necro.

If I play good and my group is good elementalist barely save like 1 minutes every dungeon.

If I play poorly and my group is poor, necro save 3+ minutes just with the ability to not dieing and rez dead teamates.

Obviously guardian is by far the best class if your pug isn’t good with reflect and aegis.

Zergs.9715:

Test.8734:

Me and four other nice people who are playing to have fun.

Took words right out of my mouth.

And mine.

Riku.4821:

@Snow – General use, Dungeons, Map Complete, events.
Aoe as in Mesmer Greatsword phantasm and mind stab, Elementalist skills etc.
I am having a hard time with how it surprises you tbh haha.

Well, I personally wouldn’t put the random nature of mesmer conditions over a condition necromancer or a good trapper when I want conditions, AoE on a mesmer never impressed me (though they have some good multi-target abilities that help out a bit) due to the long cooldown and/or small effect and I wouldn’t take a full tank guardian to many situations outside point control. Oh and hammer warrior I would have to know the things we are fighting are cc’able and greatsword is a mobility weapon making one of your damage dealers much more mobile than your tank, either wasting the mobility or wasting the point of having a defender. This is less important if you are required to split up the party often.

Which was also part of the reason I was curious about the situation. General pve I wouldn’t take a condition damage build because of the long build up (if a creature dies in 3 seconds due to focus fire, conditions do very little damage and with an extra bit of fire power it might die in 2 seconds), though I could understand control conditions a bit better, but again things die way too quick in pve. If this were a extended fight situation, I could feel it more but why not take something that is valid in more situations?

The fact that things die so quickly pushes me away from taking a tank with as well in pve, we have dodges for short fights, making it only an option in extended fights (bosses). Even then, with good support or skilled players a tank isn’t needed. The cc warrior has the same issue (why cc something when it dies almost instantly or you can dodge it anyway) and because of the current way defiance works its not great in a boss fight, although you have a conjure ele so I can feel a nice cc combo with frost bow. The combo might not be worth having a character dedicated to mobility and CC in a typical boss fight however when you can instead have a dodging damage dealer killing the thing faster so there is less time to make mistakes and less pressure on your team.

A utility mesmer I can feel (portal is a godsend), but I’d take sword over great sword myself so the utilities are located close to the front line so more can benefit. A staff elementalist can really make things easier with support and do less important roles should the time come so you don’t have to dedicate a slot (eg hammer warrior for cc).

It is an interesting composition though, and not too different from what I am used to running with from time to time (Mediation guard instead of tank guard, phantom mes, condistealth mes, cc engi/warrior, x) in wvw (guild group).

EDIT: This is all based of the current state of pve. And my groups almost always are made up of whoever wants to group up so I never run with any optimal group anyway.

1st Tier:
Elementalist
Guardian

2nd Tier:
Warrior
Thief
Engineer
Mesmer
Good rangers

3rd Tier:
Necro

Bearbow Tier:
Bearbow ranger

Me, and four people whom I know can play their selected classes well in PvE (regardless of the class).

@ Snow – I can now see where you are coming from, as I said before I am not a fan of Engineers, and not really a fan of necromancers either. One is good once in awhile, and I feel the few conditions from a mesmer on top of the rest a Mesmer can do would be better. I Hammer warrior for CC and I was stuck on Greatsword or Dual Axes, I like Greatswords more so I picked that one haha.
Also my post was not off of the current meta but general “perfect world” scenario.

tire 1(numero uno, za best):
elemental – max deeps, chill bow, furry, might or might not
worrier – beners of tactic, big dps with 10000blades, never die always live
gaurdien – area retalation, perma light fields, blocks for no doges, big dps when aegis(100% uptime)

tire 2(is ok not za best):
teef – always invisible never see, makes u invisible too
mezmer – reflect, teleport, infinite dps with pink lazer(after long time to charge)
hunter – big range strong bow, bear animal to tank, easy to play(full signet never press them)

tire3(not good never play):
ingeneer – big lag for all, arrogant player says it can invisible you(lol only teef can)
necro – plays with dead eww, no damage just fear all away

robertul.3679:

t
tire3(not good never play):
ingeneer – big lag for all, arrogant player says it can invisible you(lol only teef can)
necro – plays with dead eww, no damage just fear all away

1. Engineers can give you 10+ seconds of invisibility. You should look up smoke fields and blast finishers to see what they do.

2. Good necros don’t play that way. Also, “eww”? Are you five?

@Riku Ahh I see, so its more of a personal choice and idealistic circumstances. Fair enough, thanks for elaborating

Me: necro

4 others: pug roulette

the randomness adds to the fun. Sometimes i get a special treat and a random dnt joins my party.

2x Engi, mesmer, warrior, guardian.

Vul, might, reflects and this is mainly what me and my friends make :p

Not an order of prefference. Just the 5 classes I like to see togheter.

1)me staff ele
2) 1 ranger: that extra precision
3) war: banner bot
4) 1 conjure s/f ele
5)1 guard

Would drop the ranger for thief when you have to stealth skip too much.

Is necro dps really that bad?

For some strange reason, I always have agro just by using potion and consumable.

It is pretty bad. Especially noticeable when you pug.

3 staff eles, 1 phalanx warrior, one thief/guard another ele.

dobri.7820:

last
Necro – mass stability,

First time ever I’ve seen necro picked up for having mass stability in dungeon environment…

Otherwise, I enjoy doing dungeon in a party with people that know what they gotta do. It’s fine this way. I enjoy it even more when I can learn 1 or 2 new tricks in the process.
This mean that any class is fine. But this also mean that I especially hate overuse of hard cc in a dungeon (I m looking at you ranger’s longbow user).

1st:
Warrior (Phalanx Strength)
Ele (Staff or Scepter Hammer)
Ele (Dagger/Focus)
Thief (D/D S/P)
Guard (Hammer Protection)

2nd: (Seriously, I love this)
Ele (Staff)
Ele (Scepter Hammer)
Ele (Scepter Hammer support variant)
Ele (Dagger/Focus)
Guard (Protection Hammer)

Dadnir.5038:

dobri.7820:

last
Necro – mass stability,

First time ever I’ve seen necro picked up for having mass stability in dungeon environment…

Yeah. I kinda went “wtf” when I saw that. The one second of stability is the best we have to offer? Poor necros.

Thats not even group stability. Its stab to make the stunbreak work correctly.

my favourite party composition is:
1. necromancer
2. necromancer
3. necromancer
4. necromancer
5. necromancer

5 human females

Altair.8402:

Bearbow Tier:
Bearbow ranger

Old Tom (Uncatagorized Fractal) , get a bear, give it retal, sit behind it, and dance.

Tier 0:

• Revenant, when HoT is released – I already know enough about him (barely anything, to be exact), to be sure, that this class will be our new overused top-tier overlord.

1st Tier:

• FS/Spotter Ranger – Maining it, so i’m very biased on this one.
• Staff/Conjure Ele – For obvious reasons.
• Mantra/Feedback Mesmer – So many utility…just look at all that utility!
• Thief – Blast, stealth, very high DPS.

2nd Tier:

• Phalanx Warrior – For banners and might. In T2 for being overused.
• Guardian – Would have put Mesmer here and Guardian in 1st tier, but Guardian lacks #yoloswag and #oloysgaw. Aegis doesn’t give either #yoloswag or #oloysgaw.

3rd Tier:

• Engineer – Brings not much to the table, unless high personal DPS. Can be useful, sometimes, if party lacks certain combo fields.
• Necro – A-Net, pls fix.

… And there we go. After over 2 years of tweaking META, making very precise calculations to optimize DPS and planning every little step of your PvE experience, the ideal party you end up with will be:
Support necro (for their amazing group stability)
Condi mesmer (huge AoE DPS!!!!)
Nomad guardian (because who wants to dodge?)
PS warrior (because nobody wants an ele or knows what might stacking is)
And then probably another necro, because it’s everybody’s favorite class.
Oh and this is what you get if you ask a specialist. Don’t even dare to think what kind of party will be made by people, who don’t specialize in PvE.

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

1. Thief
2. Thief
3. Thief
4. Thief
5. Thief

shout warrior, medi guard, thief, rifle engi, dagger dagger ele

5 Mesmers Portal everywhere!

Ele, Thief, Engie. Everything else is opt.