Guild Wars 2

Hi you all.

I have a friend who has recently started playing the game.
He wants to focus on a single class and he asked for a pug carrying one.
I’d say guardian (but I’m unsure on low dps groups), warr/ele (for solo carrying the run)… and engis?

Engineer for a bit of everything and when all else fails it’s a very strong solo class. :3

Pretty much every class can carry pugs when played correctly (for dungeons at least, might not be the case for FotM).

Mesmer, despite their low DPS, bring a lot of reflects, decent condition removal, a bit of party wide stability, portal and TimeWarp (good for CM / CoF / SE / Arah and FotM)

Guardian, when played well, probably one of the best class to carry pugs, with aegis, stability, condition removal, reflects, blinds. (good for everything)

Thief, one of the highest DPS class (but very squishy), bring a lot of stealth for skipping, perma blind, which is very useful to kill trash mobs easily (good for everything)

Warrior, one of the easiest class to play decently. Bring mainly offensive support (banner of tactics / defense is a no no). (good for everything)

Elementalist, one of the most squishy class along with thief but also one of the highest DPS class, very good for providing might and fury, ice bows. Can provide blind with Sandstorm. Dagger / Focus build offers a good survability. (good for everything).

Engineer/Warrior for regular dungeons. First one does everything by himself, second just doesn’t give a flip and drags anything alongside.

The real question is which class does he enjoy playing the most.

@Jerem and TKiller. Your opinion in fractals?

I’d say thief but guardian is a popular opinion.

Jerem, you forgot portals on mesmers; probably one of the best skills to carry pugs.

As some mentioned above, the most important part is to play a class you enjoy! I, for example, love Warrior and Thief but I don’t like playing Elementalist or Mesmer even tough those classes support the groups pretty decent.

The pro’s Jerem posted are all right (+Mesmer Portal) but i want to add that you should avoid Necro as the class is rather selfish.
Fractalwise would I pick a Guardian!

I would say guardian. Usually when my pug are having trouble in fotm", someone always say “wait, let me switch to guardian”.

Jerem has a good list. In addition to GrimmR’s addition to it, I’d like to add that Guardian also has “Time Warp” (Offensive tome #4 skill. Then drop without using any of the other skills).

Lol. Talking about it. Just did a SEp1. Guard, mes, ranger, engi and me as warrior. Zero reflects on the 3 golems part even when all hurried to stack at the corner. A completly wipe. I never have problems when I run with my guard or mesmer….

Imo engineer and ele. Both can quickly react and adapt to the party´s needs. Ele dishes out more damage and is more squishy in return, engi isnt bound to attunement cooldowns and takes much more abuse (whats imo the only real thing that makes the ele for me 2nd place..and that not by much). Engi´s healing turret with its aoe regen and aoe heal aswell condi cleanse can easily keep a group alive and healthy, also the elixir cannon allows for a ranged and ground targeted heal that can be compared to ele´s water attunement staff 3 in size and healing power.
If the engi got the healing turret slotted it also delivers a huge aoe regen what (for me) often acts as a quick bandaid at smaller condition stacks on the team (specially during the turret´s cooldown) The ele´s water attument is without a doubt also perfect to heal and its bonus is that it can be targeted while the engi´s healing aoe (if you nuke the turret) comes from him\herself…so people who need healing need to be in a certain range of the engi what can lead to downed state quickly if kitten hits the fan.
When the ele switches attuments to water he\she is also able to give the team aoe regen.
Damage wise the ele usually wins that comparison though the engi isnt a joke either with the right kits, specially at vun stacking and stacking might, though the ele can technically (and often does) stack might higher then the engi. Needless to say the ele can provide summoned weapons like the ice bow what kicks kitten The engi on the other hand can trait his\her turrets for reflection and perma boons if you are near them and isnt bound to the attunement cooldown so eles need a bit more foresight then the engi does. Like for example a team mate lost a lot of health at a hit of a boss and the ele just switched out of his attument he wont be able to go back to it fast enough to pop a healing aoe.. the engi on the other hand could quickly pull out a healing turret or his elixir cannon and deal with it.

Like the ele the engi can do everything for a team though engies can stealth the team with their bomb smoke field and elixir-s throwing…obviosly not even close to what a thief or mesmer can do but it does work if its really needed.

Eles can “cheat” easily at fractals.. specially at consoles that need to be used by 2 people with their lighting teleport and mist form, but also the engi is capable of doing so with the transmute trait in the alchemy traitline what turns 1 condition to a boon all 15 seconds.. what means you can turn the immobility of these things to swiftness and push 2 buttons quite easy, 3 if you use a condi clean (what i do often and both classes can do it on the fly).

Engi is able to rez people with a ranged and small aoe from the elixir-r potion. Its not nearly as effective like.. lets say the warrior elite banner but its also quite helpfull to either support a downed ally at rezing or keep him\her alive if an enemie hammers on them while you run over to rez them “manually”. The ele is also capable of doing this.. and even buffs the downed one based on what attument the ele uses at the moment.
Both is nice imo.

Well to wrap it up.. imo both do their job splendit and they can be kitten solo coffin fillers anytime its needed, they can quickly adapt, buff the group, heal really good and overall are very fun to play. Engi is a swiss army knive and ele is a swiss army wand. Both got their weaknesses and strong sides and its imo just a matter of taste.

Guardian. Because the biggest problem in fractals currently is stability. One hell of a problem.

Jeremlloyd.6837:

Pretty much every class can carry pugs when played correctly (for dungeons at least, might not be the case for FotM).

Mesmer
Guardian
Thief
Warrior
Elementalist

I can see how Eng, Ranger and Necro are terrible for PUG carrying lol

Well I don’t play Engi enough to put it in the list, but yeah Ranger and Necro are not that great for pug carrying

If you’re going to pick only one, guardian is by far the most effective class to carry a pug run in any dungeon/fotm.

Two ways to carry a pug – offensive support or defensive support. Guard is easiest for defensive, warrior easiest for offensive. For a good balance of offensive/defensive, engi. For moral support, go necro.

frifox.5283:

Two ways to carry a pug – offensive support or defensive support. Guard is easiest for defensive, warrior easiest for offensive. For a good balance of offensive/defensive, engi. For moral support, go necro.

^^ Though I’d also say Mesmer is a decent sub for guard while offering some skipping support which in some dungeons can be invaluable. For instance a guard/warrior can only do so much to help a team get through an Arah skip, where a mesmer can make it a case of simply having to jump through a portal. And again they can do that while subbing in for the role of guard in many areas (stability/reflects/condition cleanse basically).

Jeremlloyd.6837:

Well I don’t play Engi enough to put it in the list, but yeah Ranger and Necro are not that great for pug carrying

Weird, i can carry pugs of first timers through many dungeons.
I am a ranger. (mainly)

I’d say, the class doesn’t really matter, as long as you know enough about the dungeon and it’s mechanics, as well as it’s boss’ ones.
Also, how much each pug is willing to “understand”, “comprehend” and “learn”, especially from their mistakes, greatly varies.

My fastest pug lupi kill was about 2 minutes long with 4 first timers – ranged. After i’ve explained the boss, i’ve let them watch a short video of a group fighting him.
No one died, only one grub eaten (minus the last one) and everyone was happy and i was proud.

Then you have guys like today, when i was carrying a few beginners through AC P2.
Everything went smooth, until the trap part, where one kept firing the green laser at the boss.
One also aggro’d him, after a trap was ready, even though, i’ve warned about the AoE of doom, he casts, if not properly positioned.
Whenever i’ve said “wait”, “ooc” or “stop and listen”, 2 of them just kept attacking the boss, while he was invulnerable.
Eventually, i’ve got them to stack behind a pillar and LoS’d the boss, w/o triggering his AoE. (which i’ve just learned during that run – pets might be somewhat “duuuuhhh”, but man, are they life-savers sometimes)

wauwi.9162:

Jeremlloyd.6837:

Well I don’t play Engi enough to put it in the list, but yeah Ranger and Necro are not that great for pug carrying

Weird, i can carry pugs of first timers through many dungeons.
I am a ranger. (mainly)

I’d say, the class doesn’t really matter, as long as you know enough about the dungeon and it’s mechanics, as well as it’s boss’ ones.
Also, how much each pug is willing to “understand”, “comprehend” and “learn”, especially from their mistakes, greatly varies.

My fastest pug lupi kill was about 2 minutes long with 4 first timers – ranged. After i’ve explained the boss, i’ve let them watch a short video of a group fighting him.
No one died, only one grub eaten (minus the last one) and everyone was happy and i was proud.

Then you have guys like today, when i was carrying a few beginners through AC P2.
Everything went smooth, until the trap part, where one kept firing the green laser at the boss.
One also aggro’d him, after a trap was ready, even though, i’ve warned about the AoE of doom, he casts, if not properly positioned.
Whenever i’ve said “wait”, “ooc” or “stop and listen”, 2 of them just kept attacking the boss, while he was invulnerable.
Eventually, i’ve got them to stack behind a pillar and LoS’d the boss, w/o triggering his AoE. (which i’ve just learned during that run – pets might be somewhat “duuuuhhh”, but man, are they life-savers sometimes)

OP was asking about Fractals in a previous post. That’s why I mentionned that Ranger and Necro don’t bring that much for that area. Also I talk about meta build and I consider going melee for most of the encounters.

For ultimate pug carrying you need more than 1 prof :P But I’d say Guardians do the job pretty well for all dungeons and also fractals. In some cases, it also helps if you are comfortable soloing bosses with that class just in case half your party wipes.

AC 123 – Ele, because frostbow 5 can be lifesaver at bosses and easy for burrows.
CM 123 – Guardian/Thief. I prefer Guard because you don’t really need a thief with reflects and group stability for p3.
TA UF – Guardian helps clear blossoms easily and trash skips, also stability.
SE 123 – Guardian for condi cleanse/reflects.
CoF 12 – Ele, for dps and you could get the last part in p2 in one go.
HotW 1 – Mesmer/Guardian.
CoE 123 – Guardian, for reflects/stability at alpha, hammer helps with low dps groups.
Arah 1234 – Mesmer. Portals for trash skips, condi cleanse, Warden reflect +Feedback makes bosses like Alphard/Magecrusher/Lyssa easy, mass invi..

Op here.

What would be the max burst rotation on guards? To deal with the gate in CoFp1 for instance?
Tome of wrath: might and quickness——-Staff: Stack might, drop symbol—-GS: symbol and WW?

im not sure staff is in any meta dps rotation for guards. that I know of

nope. also Staff is sort of the bane of my existence. (excluding few exceptions)

From http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/12501056-dnt-guardian-build-9914

• For short fights I use GS2-5 -> Swap
• For extremely short fights I use Scepter2/Mace2 + focus skils -> Swap to GS
• GS + Sword = GS2 -> GS4 -> GS3 -> GS5 if no pull is needed -> GS auto until GS2 is up -> GS2 -> Swap to sword -> Focus 4 -> Focus 5 if not needed for survival -> Sword auto until swap is available -> repeat GS and sword rotation
• GS + Mace = GS2 -> GS4 -> GS3 -> GS5 if no pull is needed -> GS auto until GS2 is up -> GS2 -> Swap to Mace -> Mace2 -> Focus 4 -> Focus 5 if not needed for survival -> Mace auto until Mace2 is up -> Mace2 -> swap -> repeat GS and Mace rotation
• Scepter = Scepter2 ? Focus5 ? Focus4 ? Torch4 ? auto ? Scepter2 ? auto ? Scepter2 ? auto ? Scepter2 ? Torch5 ? auto ? Focus4 ? auto ? Scepter2
• GS + Hammer = GS2 -> GS4 -> GS3 -> GS5 if no pull is needed -> GS auto until GS2 is up -> GS2 -> Swap to Hammer -> Hammer auto until swap is available and final chain is completed -> swap -> repeat GS and Hammer rotation

Yeah careful with Guard, bringing defensive gear won’t help.
And bringing a staff neither, except for TA.
The max DPS rotation is with GS + S/F.
You should read this guide : http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/12501056-dnt-guardian-build-9914
Or if you’re too lazy : http://intothemists.com/guides/3617-max_utility_dps_guardian

In my defense I was proposing staff only for CoFp1’s gate in a pug setting , that is, no one is giving you might.
When in my guard, I tend to use the meta 45005, don’t worry.

I could see that being a viable idea if everyone waited, you got in place, swap in staff quickly to empower, swap back to GS, swap to mace, run in casting mace2, then focus 5/4 swap back to GS and run that rotation and hopefully it’s dead? Just gotta make sure you don’t get stuck with your staff out…:D

Guardian is the go to in my opinion. Once again, I main guardian since day -579 ^ _ ^

@Jeremlloyd:
OP wants more than just doing fractals, where an adaptive and skilled mesmer is the best carrying profession, imo.
And appearently, rangers just sit back and pewpew with LB#1, according to you. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt here and say, you must have had really bad luck with rangers in pugs.

About the guardian and his staff: It’s a bit more to it, than just killing blossoms in TA.
It’s the guardians best kiting weapon (if not the best way of aggroing or “conducting” mob trains for any class – choochoo) and he/she should have it in his inventory at all times.

A few examples:
AC P1 – Deffing Hodgins, if your party does not have enough DPS to kill the burrows fast enough.
CoE Submarine – Aggro as many explosive golems as possible, during the security breach part.
Arah P3 – Kiting the wraiths all around, at the endboss during the ritual.
Arah P4 – Kiting the gorillas around, during the melandru boss battle.

So yeah, the staff’s a pretty good utility weapon.

I’m a fan of staff for it’s niche uses as well. Ritual event in p3 arah is one of those places.

On p1AC though are people still having that issue? I was under the impression that after April 14th the scaling changes on Ferocity made that whole dungeon a joke and things die way too fast… I guess it’s just a zerker thing and if you went PVT you wouldn’t get that bonus? Admittedly I don’t pug AC much if at all recently but really surprised by that thought.

As for the COE path, isn’t it common to just 1/4 that’s how all the PUGs I join do it too, and even a not fully DPS built guardian can do the guarding solo with a hammer.

Staff guard is good. Sometimes

@Jerus:
Keep in mind, we’re talking about carrying PUGs, which are often inexperienced low level players.
I sometimes have PUGs, consisting out of 1 mesmer, 1 necro and 2 thiefs, sub lv50. You gotta have one (at least) deffing hodgins in such a scenario.
But yeah, AC is a whole lot easier, than i remembered it from one year ago (just started playing again 3 weeks ago).
Burrows seem to die a whole lot faster.

About the CoE path: There might be better ways of dealing with it, but i’ve seen guards doing that pretty well with the staff, 1-4, kill big golems, then 4-1.

I’m so sick of people switching to guardian on the fly, thinking it’s a very easy class to play and that you can “carry” with it just by spamming skills… only to fail miserably and drag the whole team to hell.
“Lemme switch to guardian” hilarity ensued.
The class with the most hours played/the largest amount of experience gained in dungeons and fractals is your best bet.
Skip this if the answer is “necro”.

OP here. My friend has decided to go guardian. Thank you all.

By the way, that means that I should choose my profession for high levels fractals (to craft the ascended armor). And I can’t decide between warrior, engi or ele.

As a PUG-runner/carry-er, Portal as a Mesmer does not help.

In most cases, a group that gets a portal (there are some that don’t need a portal, thankfully), it usually takes two-three tries to finally get everyone. Why? Because there’s that one (or two) person[s] that walks onto the glowy light, waits a moment, then the light disappears and they type: “I didn’t get portaled.”

Because me typing follow me and press F, followed by a nice notification on the screen saying: “F: Use Portal”, and a nice big, glowy light under their feet is not enough.

Also, some people think I’m Kasmeer and can use Blink-Portals. It makes it really, really annoying when I say: “Wait here while I portal you.” because they immediately follow me.

Lastly, even if the group knows what a portal is and how to use it, if you tell them: “Go to my waypoint and wait there.” followed by a ctrl+click of the waypoint nearest to my personal waypoint, they still stand where they are/follow you/wander around aimlessly, suiciding (and pulling trash to nearby allies).

#thehardlife

Ryn.6459:

OP here. My friend has decided to go guardian. Thank you all.

By the way, that means that I should choose my profession for high levels fractals (to craft the ascended armor). And I can’t decide between warrior, engi or ele.

I can’t decide to play warrior or guardian. But that is easy to decide, since they share the same gear.

Maybe ask yourself, do you like to play the other complement heavy/leather/light class. Say if you like theif also, you can play an engi.

OP, those are all great choices, but do question yourself: Which classes are you most comfortable with?

For example, I find myself dying and play at much less potential as an warrior than as an ele (my main). My engi does combo not as fluidly as my ele. On top of that, playing ele has come naturally to me to instinctively know how to use which skills and when they are off CD. So when I need to be serious and focus, I know I can do my best with my ele. That’s why I invested on her a lot (full ascended armors, 4 legendaries, 5 ascended weapons and several alternate sets of armors and weapons for min-maxing)

Agreed with Iris.
It took me pretty long to settle down on my main classes until I decided to go for Warrior and Thief as mains. Got Ranger for third choice. I don’t like playing Ele, I simply never did and I am the worst Guard EU!
Just go to PvP and play through all the classes or if you have all classes on lvl 80 just run a view dungeons with them.. Check the current metabuilds or not depending on your playstyle!
Might take some time but that’s how I decided.

All of the fun stuff has been mentioned already, but there’s one thing that an Engi can do to carry a pug what nothing else can.
Remember those melee bosses that hit like a truck and oneshot everything with their 21k damage swings like Archdiviner, Ettin, Mossman? Engineer can provide at least two minutes of constant immobilize, just with Net Turret, Supply Crate and Netshot while under condi duration food (which is meta for Engi anyways), without sacrificing much of personal DPS. It’s seriously funny to see a pug that wiped twice on lvl 50 Archie already to flawlessly kill him when he can’t move worth jack.

Ryn.6459:

Hi you all.

I have a friend who has recently started playing the game.
He wants to focus on a single class and he asked for a pug carrying one.
I’d say guardian (but I’m unsure on low dps groups), warr/ele (for solo carrying the run)… and engis?

full sentinel shout heal warrior with monk rune