Guild Wars 2

Hi, i’m looking for a class/race with high mobility, since i’m probs just going to explore the whole map of Guild Wars 2. Don’t like to stay in one spot for hours

Nike Warrior, fast but not combat mobile. Thief for stealth and escape from mobs combined with decently fast. Elementalist is farely speedy, and has heals on the side.

Thief and warrior have the highest mobility. Classes with easy access to swiftness and/or the passive speed boost signets are great too.

Jai.3058:

Nike Warrior, fast but not combat mobile. Thief for stealth and escape from mobs combined with decently fast. Elementalist is farely speedy, and has heals on the side.

thanks!

Ayrilana.1396:

Thief and warrior have the highest mobility. Classes with easy access to swiftness and/or the passive speed boost signets are great too.

thanks!

Just keep in mind that thief is squishy in the extreme. Warrior has a WAY higher health pool.

Ayrilana.1396:

Thief and warrior have the highest mobility. Classes with easy access to swiftness and/or the passive speed boost signets are great too.

Thief shortbow of daggers probably put them ahead of warriors.

CureForLiving.5360:

Ayrilana.1396:

Thief and warrior have the highest mobility. Classes with easy access to swiftness and/or the passive speed boost signets are great too.

Thief shortbow of daggers probably put them ahead of warriors.

It does. I grouped them together as they seem far above the rest in my opinion. Thieves may be slightly faster but warriors also kill things quicker which is helpful when doing the hearts. It’s all about what someone’s personal preference is.

The reason no one’s mentioned race is that no race has a mobility boost. Other than some “flavor” racial skills, deliberately weaker than profession skills, all races have the same access to all abilities.

But you will feel like you’re running faster on an Asura than a Norn, thanks to the animations inherent in having them cover the same amount of ground in the same amount of time despite the leg-length difference.

Engineer is being quite good with exploring. Perma swiftness + snares to keep chasing mobs at bay + rocket boots to jump long distances + rifle 5 is a jump skill that makes small platform jumping a breeze + 5 seconds stealth…

Thief is most excellent for open world exploring and map completions.

1. You’re traits 6/6/2/0/0 for damage, full zerker with scholar runes
2. You skilled with Signet of Malice/Blinding Powder/Signet of Shadows/Assassin’s Signet
3. You’re Dagger/Pistol — pick anything ranged for second weapon set, recommend pistol/dagger to maintain damage bonuses from traits.

Open with #3, and camp #1
If it’s a group of mobs, you open with #5, kill one, then switch to #3 when back down to one mob
Use #4 on mobs you know open with AOE or multi hits.

Thieves have excellent mobility and speed, also access to stealth which makes exploring easy. Speed signet, uptime of Swiftness with traits, Shortbow, shadowsteps make Thief mobility the best

Elementalists have great mobility too. Dagger off-hand for RtL, perfect uptime of Swiftness with most weapon sets, teleport and the best mobility skill of them all, the Fiery greatsword

Warriors have excellent mobility, with excellent swiftness uptime, leaps and charges (Sword / Greatsword), Warrior mobility is among the highest

Rangers have amazing mobility too. Near perfect swiftness uptime, leaps and charges with Sword and Greatsword. If you learn how to use the Sword 2 combo well, the Ranger is unmatchable in mobility

Engineers have maybe the easiest permanent Swiftness in the game (speedy kits), leap and jump weapon and utility skills, overall they have good mobility too

Guardians have excellent swiftness uptime but other than Greatsword the rest of their mobility isn’t high, not enough leaps and charges (unless you have targets to teleport to all around you)

Necromancers and Mesmers have maybe the worst mobility out of them all. They have good access to swiftness but that’s all.

If you’re going for map completion, I’d have to go with ranger honestly

-lots of swiftness
-a decent amount of leaps
-pet is super useful for grabbing skill points and stuff
-can easily kill most champs in open world by yourself
-kills stuff at a decent pace

I may be a bit biased though ;P

also i’m assuming you’re going for map completion. if you just want to explore for the sake of exploring, any class will be fine. find a class you enjoy and take things at your own pace

My first map completion was Guardian. Which I highly recommend against. They’re probably the slowest moving class, they have horrible health pool and can’t really solo with zerker gear because of said low health pool. Did I mention they’re slow? Staff sucks balls, lets be honest here staff as a weapon blows. You only see so many guardians with one because of it’s lootstick qualities and might stack.

heartless.6803:

My first map completion was Guardian. Which I highly recommend against. They’re probably the slowest moving class, they have horrible health pool and can’t really solo with zerker gear because of said low health pool. Did I mention they’re slow? Staff sucks balls, lets be honest here staff as a weapon blows. You only see so many guardians with one because of it’s lootstick qualities and might stack.

My first map completion was with a guardian too and it’s honestly not as bad as you make it seem.

Yes, I used staff. No, it doesn’t suck balls. It gives you perma swiftness if you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout and the might-stacks are really good. When you’re up against a group of mobs simply open the fight with staff 4, switch to your greatsword and kill everything. It’s really super easy.

I also used Berserker gear with Scholar runes. I could easily solo anything I wanted in open-world PvE. I mean come on, open-world PvE is so extremely easy that if you honestly die a lot in open-world PvE you’re probably just really bad (or at least a really bad guardian).

Thief. Shadow Refuge makes map completion a breeze, nothing like being able to ignore the vets guarding the skills points/vistas. And SB 5 makes wandering so much easier

LucosTheDutch.4819:

heartless.6803:

My first map completion was Guardian. Which I highly recommend against. They’re probably the slowest moving class, they have horrible health pool and can’t really solo with zerker gear because of said low health pool. Did I mention they’re slow? Staff sucks balls, lets be honest here staff as a weapon blows. You only see so many guardians with one because of it’s lootstick qualities and might stack.

My first map completion was with a guardian too and it’s honestly not as bad as you make it seem.

Yes, I used staff. No, it doesn’t suck balls. It gives you perma swiftness if you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout and the might-stacks are really good. When you’re up against a group of mobs simply open the fight with staff 4, switch to your greatsword and kill everything. It’s really super easy.

I also used Berserker gear with Scholar runes. I could easily solo anything I wanted in open-world PvE. I mean come on, open-world PvE is so extremely easy that if you honestly die a lot in open-world PvE you’re probably just really bad (or at least a really bad guardian).

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s the slowest moving class in game with the lowest health pool. I’m looking forward to specializations to maybe get to be a damage guardian without giving up literally everything that makes my class desirable and having no defense to be less then what a warrior is. Cause right now without support a guardian is a half-kitten warrior.

heartless.6803:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

heartless.6803:

My first map completion was Guardian. Which I highly recommend against. They’re probably the slowest moving class, they have horrible health pool and can’t really solo with zerker gear because of said low health pool. Did I mention they’re slow? Staff sucks balls, lets be honest here staff as a weapon blows. You only see so many guardians with one because of it’s lootstick qualities and might stack.

My first map completion was with a guardian too and it’s honestly not as bad as you make it seem.

Yes, I used staff. No, it doesn’t suck balls. It gives you perma swiftness if you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout and the might-stacks are really good. When you’re up against a group of mobs simply open the fight with staff 4, switch to your greatsword and kill everything. It’s really super easy.

I also used Berserker gear with Scholar runes. I could easily solo anything I wanted in open-world PvE. I mean come on, open-world PvE is so extremely easy that if you honestly die a lot in open-world PvE you’re probably just really bad (or at least a really bad guardian).

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s the slowest moving class in game with the lowest health pool. I’m looking forward to specializations to maybe get to be a damage guardian without giving up literally everything that makes my class desirable and having no defense to be less then what a warrior is. Cause right now without support a guardian is a half-kitten warrior.

I actually leveled up doing world completion on guardian and had no issue whatsoever with speed, killing thinghs, and staying alive. Guardian also does not have the worst mobility in the game as you can have 100% up-time swiftness. I always went with berserker related stats and uses greatsword/staff. Your issue here may have been that you did not know how to play the class after a few hours and used mediocre weapons. I get the feeling from your post that you camped staff.

I’ve done world completion on every class but thief and engineer. I’m slowly working on thief and have zero desire to ever play engineer. Of the ones that I have done, mesmer was the slowest.

heartless.6803:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

heartless.6803:

My first map completion was Guardian. Which I highly recommend against. They’re probably the slowest moving class, they have horrible health pool and can’t really solo with zerker gear because of said low health pool. Did I mention they’re slow? Staff sucks balls, lets be honest here staff as a weapon blows. You only see so many guardians with one because of it’s lootstick qualities and might stack.

My first map completion was with a guardian too and it’s honestly not as bad as you make it seem.

Yes, I used staff. No, it doesn’t suck balls. It gives you perma swiftness if you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout and the might-stacks are really good. When you’re up against a group of mobs simply open the fight with staff 4, switch to your greatsword and kill everything. It’s really super easy.

I also used Berserker gear with Scholar runes. I could easily solo anything I wanted in open-world PvE. I mean come on, open-world PvE is so extremely easy that if you honestly die a lot in open-world PvE you’re probably just really bad (or at least a really bad guardian).

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s the slowest moving class in game with the lowest health pool. I’m looking forward to specializations to maybe get to be a damage guardian without giving up literally everything that makes my class desirable and having no defense to be less then what a warrior is. Cause right now without support a guardian is a half-kitten warrior.

Guardian is not at all the slowest moving class in the game, not even close. Like I said, guardians can have perma-swiftness with staff 3 + ‘retreat!’. Many classes can’t give themselves perma-swiftness. The slowest class in the game is mesmer.

Guardians also don’t have the lowest health pool. Sure, our health pool is not very high but us guardians make up for that with our insane amount of active defenses (no other class in this game has as much active defense as the guardian).

And why do you want the guardian’s specialization to be DPS oriented? Guardians are already among the top 3 damage dealers in the game and you really don’t have to sacrifice anything to reach that amount of DPS.

DPS guardians do much more damage than DPS warriors do while also having more defensive capabilities than DPS warriors have.

Your issues seem to be l2p issues. I get the feeling you don’t really know your class very well. The guardian is fine and in fact one of the most desirable classes in PvE. It just takes a bit of skill to be a good guardian.

If you want play easy-mode than warrior might indeed be a better class for you as it has a bigger health pool even when fully specced for DPS, but warriors also have less active defenses and less DPS than a guardian who’s specced for DPS.

Ayrilana.1396:

heartless.6803:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

heartless.6803:

My first map completion was Guardian. Which I highly recommend against. They’re probably the slowest moving class, they have horrible health pool and can’t really solo with zerker gear because of said low health pool. Did I mention they’re slow? Staff sucks balls, lets be honest here staff as a weapon blows. You only see so many guardians with one because of it’s lootstick qualities and might stack.

My first map completion was with a guardian too and it’s honestly not as bad as you make it seem.

Yes, I used staff. No, it doesn’t suck balls. It gives you perma swiftness if you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout and the might-stacks are really good. When you’re up against a group of mobs simply open the fight with staff 4, switch to your greatsword and kill everything. It’s really super easy.

I also used Berserker gear with Scholar runes. I could easily solo anything I wanted in open-world PvE. I mean come on, open-world PvE is so extremely easy that if you honestly die a lot in open-world PvE you’re probably just really bad (or at least a really bad guardian).

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s the slowest moving class in game with the lowest health pool. I’m looking forward to specializations to maybe get to be a damage guardian without giving up literally everything that makes my class desirable and having no defense to be less then what a warrior is. Cause right now without support a guardian is a half-kitten warrior.

I actually leveled up doing world completion on guardian and had no issue whatsoever with speed, killing thinghs, and staying alive. Guardian also does not have the worst mobility in the game as you can have 100% up-time swiftness. I always went with berserker related stats and uses greatsword/staff. Your issue here may have been that you did not know how to play the class after a few hours and used mediocre weapons. I get the feeling from your post that you camped staff.

I’ve done world completion on every class but thief and engineer. I’m slowly working on thief and have zero desire to ever play engineer. Of the ones that I have done, mesmer was the slowest.

No, I hate staff never use it. Most I use staff for is to swap to it for Teq prior to burn phase. I find it a boring weapon and serves little point or use. I much rather prefer a scepter/focus and greatsword. Greatsword because it’s required as it’s the only damage weapon we have. We have other weapons that deal damage, but it’s the only high damage option.

The guardian profession confuses me, why am I the only class who’s profession skills effect everyone around me? Mesmers shatters only effect them. Engi tool belt only effects them. Necro only effects them. Why does all virtue have to effect everyone around me? It seems to be the prime reason our health is so low and damage is so low, to offset the stupid high amounts of support.

Thief-has lots of teleports and stealth (so you don’t slow down if an enemy hits you).

heartless.6803:

Ayrilana.1396:

heartless.6803:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

heartless.6803:

My first map completion was Guardian. Which I highly recommend against. They’re probably the slowest moving class, they have horrible health pool and can’t really solo with zerker gear because of said low health pool. Did I mention they’re slow? Staff sucks balls, lets be honest here staff as a weapon blows. You only see so many guardians with one because of it’s lootstick qualities and might stack.

My first map completion was with a guardian too and it’s honestly not as bad as you make it seem.

Yes, I used staff. No, it doesn’t suck balls. It gives you perma swiftness if you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout and the might-stacks are really good. When you’re up against a group of mobs simply open the fight with staff 4, switch to your greatsword and kill everything. It’s really super easy.

I also used Berserker gear with Scholar runes. I could easily solo anything I wanted in open-world PvE. I mean come on, open-world PvE is so extremely easy that if you honestly die a lot in open-world PvE you’re probably just really bad (or at least a really bad guardian).

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s the slowest moving class in game with the lowest health pool. I’m looking forward to specializations to maybe get to be a damage guardian without giving up literally everything that makes my class desirable and having no defense to be less then what a warrior is. Cause right now without support a guardian is a half-kitten warrior.

I actually leveled up doing world completion on guardian and had no issue whatsoever with speed, killing thinghs, and staying alive. Guardian also does not have the worst mobility in the game as you can have 100% up-time swiftness. I always went with berserker related stats and uses greatsword/staff. Your issue here may have been that you did not know how to play the class after a few hours and used mediocre weapons. I get the feeling from your post that you camped staff.

I’ve done world completion on every class but thief and engineer. I’m slowly working on thief and have zero desire to ever play engineer. Of the ones that I have done, mesmer was the slowest.

No, I hate staff never use it. Most I use staff for is to swap to it for Teq prior to burn phase. I find it a boring weapon and serves little point or use. I much rather prefer a scepter/focus and greatsword. Greatsword because it’s required as it’s the only damage weapon we have. We have other weapons that deal damage, but it’s the only high damage option.

The guardian profession confuses me, why am I the only class who’s profession skills effect everyone around me? Mesmers shatters only effect them. Engi tool belt only effects them. Necro only effects them. Why does all virtue have to effect everyone around me? It seems to be the prime reason our health is so low and damage is so low, to offset the stupid high amounts of support.

Sword does great damage. If you’re doing map completion after reaching 80, just use the meta DPS build. Guardians don’t need high HP because of the amount of blinds that they have as well as blocks.

heartless.6803:

No, I hate staff never use it. Most I use staff for is to swap to it for Teq prior to burn phase. I find it a boring weapon and serves little point or use.
I much rather prefer a scepter/focus and greatsword. Greatsword because it’s required as it’s the only damage weapon we have. We have other weapons that deal damage, but it’s the only high damage option.

The guardian profession confuses me, why am I the only class who’s profession skills effect everyone around me? Mesmers shatters only effect them. Engi tool belt only effects them. Necro only effects them. Why does all virtue have to effect everyone around me? It seems to be the prime reason our health is so low and damage is so low, to offset the stupid high amounts of support.

Staff is actually an amazing weapon on guardian and extremely useful outside of dungeons. It gives you perma-swiftness, great CC capabilities, some extra healing and a very good DPS boost for yourself and others when using staff 4 right before you swap to your other weapon to land your burst. Staffs are actually a must for guardians in WvW (unless you’re solo-roaming, then I’d advice against it). It’s that good of a weapon.

If you think greatsword is the only DPS weapon guardians have you really don’t know the class very well. Both one-handed swords and scepters do more DPS than greatswords. Greatswords have amazing burst capabilities and are great for dealing with trash mobs in PvE, but for actually sustained DPS the sword and scepter are better weapons.

Virtues only affect everyone around you when you activate them. The passive effects are for yourself only. The fact that activating virtues also affects your teammates is just a bonus (and a very good bonus, it’s the reason why guardians are so popular in dungeons and WvW), it doesn’t affect you negatively at all.

And I already explained to you that the guardians are in the top 3 damage dealers in this game, so your complaint about our DPS is invalid.

It seems you really just need to get a better understanding of guardians and how to play them before you complain about stuff that just isn’t true.

I would recommend against using Guardian. If you can choose the best class for open world completions, Guardian would not be it, though it would be in my top 3.

Yes you CAN get perma swiftness with staff but it’s … not fun or practical. Other than the perma swiftness, which requires you to constantly stand around in symbols (and slows you down consequently) or use a bunch of useless traits in Virtue, staff is also perma-crap damage. No sane person would recommend you use that weapon for open world completion when every other weapon is much more damage; no one wants to take twice as long to kill trash than they have to. It’s use is VERY limited in PVE to trash zergs and I can’t even recall many instances in Open world where that happens to justify equipping a staff.

If someone insists on using a Guardian for open world completions, your optimal source of swiftness is not going to be from staff unless you love refreshing swiftness all the time; you can use traveler runes (expensive but reliable) or sigil of speed which is cheap and easy to use with minimal damage loss on your build.

Obtena.7952:

I would recommend against using Guardian. Yes you CAN get perma swiftness with staff but it’s … not fun. If you can choose your class for open world completions, Guardian would not be it. Other than the perma swiftness, which requires you to constantly stand around in symbols (and slows you down consequently), staff is perma crap damage. No sane person would recommend you use that weapon it for open world completion. It’s use is VERY limited in PVE.

You don’t have to stand still to get the perma-swiftness at all. If you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout you can just keep running while throwing symbols in front of yourself and spamming ‘retreat!’ whenever it comes off cooldown.

It is true that the DPS of a staff is bad, but you have a 2nd weapon for that. Whenever you’re engaging in a fight, just throw down your staff 5 wall in front of the mobs, then throw your staff 3 symbol on them, use staff 4 to give yourself 12 stacks of might and then just burst them down with your greatsword or sword/focus (I prefer greatsword for open-world PvE).

You might not like guardians for open-world PvE and that’s fine but the complaints you wrote down here are simply invalid or not true.

Obtena.7952:

I would recommend against using Guardian. Yes you CAN get perma swiftness with staff but it’s … not fun. If you can choose your class for open world completions, Guardian would not be it. Other than the perma swiftness, which requires you to constantly stand around in symbols (and slows you down consequently), staff is perma crap damage. No sane person would recommend you use that weapon it for open world completion. It’s use is VERY limited in PVE.

I usually laid down the symbol when fighting mobs or activating vistas and then used it as I ran around. I never used it to attack nor to stack might as it wasn’t worth it. Time was never lost when using staff swiftness as the time spent gaining the stacks of duration was easily made up with the time I would have lost without having the swiftness. Having to stand and stack duration is even less of an issue now with the swiftness duration food from the recent festival.

One of the things that I liked most when using guardian was to use GS #5 to pull in mobs and then #2 when trying to get kills for the hearts. I completed hearts much quicker than I had with the other classes I have played and hearts are the most time-consuming objective when doing map completions (except for Orr).

If the sole purpose is to just do map completion in the fastest time, and only once, then yes I would not use guardian. I’d use either a thief or a warrior because of their mobility.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Obtena.7952:

I would recommend against using Guardian. Yes you CAN get perma swiftness with staff but it’s … not fun. If you can choose your class for open world completions, Guardian would not be it. Other than the perma swiftness, which requires you to constantly stand around in symbols (and slows you down consequently), staff is perma crap damage. No sane person would recommend you use that weapon it for open world completion. It’s use is VERY limited in PVE.

You don’t have to stand still to get the perma-swiftness at all. If you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout you can just keep running while throwing symbols in front of yourself and spamming ‘retreat!’ whenever it comes off cooldown.

It is true that the DPS of a staff is bad, but you have a 2nd weapon for that. Whenever you’re engaging in a fight, just throw down your staff 5 wall in front of the mobs, then throw your staff 3 symbol on them, use staff 4 to give yourself 12 stacks of might and then just burst them down with your greatsword or sword/focus (I prefer greatsword for open-world PvE).

You might not like guardians for open-world PvE and that’s fine but the complaints you wrote down here are simply invalid or not true.

So you need to use staff AND have retreat for your perma-swiftness scheme? Begging my pardon, that’s an even worse proposal. At least you acknowledged staff has junk damage.

The fact that there is a compromise to achieve swiftness on Guardian is why it’s not my top choice and never should anyone recommend using staff for openworld map completion. Seriously, what ARE you thinking? The time you save with the perma swiftness is more than lost because the damage is just that bad.

Thief I believe is best. Getting speed does not impact my build choice, it’s damage is excellent, it has amazing opener with #3 or #5 in a D/P build and with the proper adept trait and heal choice, some cleanse ability to leave a fight ready for the next.

Warrior is quite good as well but I haven’t spent enough time with it to rank it properly. It doesn’t seems to have an effective opener which is not good.

Ranger is also quite good but it’s opener is clever use of its pet, requiring using ranged weapon to avoid aggro. It has some cleansing issues as well.

If you can’t tell, my openworld strategy is big damage and speed (these should be obvious), as well as how you start a fight, avoid damage and how you leave a fight to minimize downtime (these things people ignore, but are important because for the same reasons you want big damage and speed). If it wasn’t for the limitations to get speed on Guardian, it would be my first choice.

yhvh.8703:

Engineer is being quite good with exploring. Perma swiftness + snares to keep chasing mobs at bay + rocket boots to jump long distances + rifle 5 is a jump skill that makes small platform jumping a breeze + 5 seconds stealth…

This.

Did map completion on my engi and had a blast with per a swiftness. Definitely recommend!

Obtena.7952:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Obtena.7952:

I would recommend against using Guardian. Yes you CAN get perma swiftness with staff but it’s … not fun. If you can choose your class for open world completions, Guardian would not be it. Other than the perma swiftness, which requires you to constantly stand around in symbols (and slows you down consequently), staff is perma crap damage. No sane person would recommend you use that weapon it for open world completion. It’s use is VERY limited in PVE.

You don’t have to stand still to get the perma-swiftness at all. If you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout you can just keep running while throwing symbols in front of yourself and spamming ‘retreat!’ whenever it comes off cooldown.

It is true that the DPS of a staff is bad, but you have a 2nd weapon for that. Whenever you’re engaging in a fight, just throw down your staff 5 wall in front of the mobs, then throw your staff 3 symbol on them, use staff 4 to give yourself 12 stacks of might and then just burst them down with your greatsword or sword/focus (I prefer greatsword for open-world PvE).

You might not like guardians for open-world PvE and that’s fine but the complaints you wrote down here are simply invalid or not true.

So you need to use staff AND have retreat for your perma-swiftness scheme? Begging my pardon, that’s an even worse proposal. At least you acknowledged staff has junk damage.

The fact that there is a compromise to achieve swiftness on Guardian is why it’s not my top choice and never should anyone recommend using staff for openworld map completion. Seriously, what ARE you thinking? The time you save with the perma swiftness is more than lost because the damage is just that bad.

Thief I believe is best. Getting speed does not impact my build choice, it’s damage is excellent, it has amazing opener with #3 or #5 in a D/P build and with the proper adept trait and heal choice, some cleanse ability to leave a fight ready for the next.

Warrior is quite good as well but I haven’t spent enough time with it to rank it properly. It doesn’t seems to have an effective opener which is not good.

Ranger is also quite good but it’s opener is clever use of its pet, requiring using ranged weapon to avoid aggro. It has some cleansing issues as well.

If you can’t tell, my openworld strategy is big damage and speed (these should be obvious), as well as how you start a fight, avoid damage and how you leave a fight to minimize downtime (these things people ignore, but are important because for the same reasons you want big damage and speed). If it wasn’t for the limitations to get speed on Guardian, it would be my first choice.

Retreat is a very useful shout and the damage you’ll do with your greatsword + the 12 might stacks you get from staff 4 will be more than enough to deal with almost any mob in open-world PvE. Don’t forget we’re talking about open-world PvE here, which isn’t exactly difficult. You could do it naked without armor and only 1 weapon and still never die and complete your hearts with relative ease.

There is also no other class than can deal with trash mobs as quickly and easily as guardians, even with a staff as one of your weapons. Simply stack might with staff 4, switch to greatsword, use ‘Save Yourselves!’ to buff up yourself even more and quickly press 5, 5, 4, 2 and you’re done. This will usually kill all the mobs around you in 1 swoop. Open-world PvE is really that simple.

Again, we’re talking about open-world PvE here, literally the easiest game-mode in GW2. It’s so frikkin easy that you really don’t need much to blast through it other than a ton of swiftness (which guardians can have permanently) and some decent CC + burst (which guardians have plenty with their greatsword).

Honestly, ANYTHING will do for open-world PvE. If I was the OP I’d base my decision on which class travels the fastest from point A to point B while also doing decent enough burst damage to kill groups of mobs relatively fast (e.g. decent AOE burst and/or cleave). Guardians have perma-swiftness, amazing CC and great burst potential, making them one of the more ideal classes for open-world PvE.

The only class I’d advice against using is mesmers because they’re so frikkin slow and they have no way of speeding themselves up other than using focus 4. As a mesmer you’re forced to use Traveler runes (which I do) and even then they’re not that fast.

Mesmer is NOT the slowest class in the game. They can have perma swiftness too.

Is just harder/maybe inconvenient to have that compared to the other professions.

yhvh.8703:

Mesmer is NOT the slowest class in the game. They can have perma swiftness too.

Is just harder/maybe inconvenient to have that compared to the other professions.

What perma swiftness?

Thanks for the replies guys. Kinda hard to say thank you to each and everyone of you. I’ll refer to this when choosing a class

be prepared to hit alot of invisible walls and get alot of “FuKc logic” moments.
take a sneakpeak into what’s i’m talking about
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Biggest-issue-I-have-with-this-game/first#post4971474

Getting 100% world map isn’t exploration btw… it’s a task in order to get Gift required for legendary.
Exploration is having freedom of movement, which you wont have in GW2.

If you aren’t playing a thief, definitely take Norn for you race – they have a elite that gives insanely long stealth.

Norn Ranger probably best.

*Norn for the elite, as nike said, think show leopard? Has a nice stealth on it.

*Ranger because lots of swiftness, pet can tank things for you while you get skill points, solo any random champ you encounter, and some of the best downed skills in game. You even have just a touch of stealth on LB which is always useful.

Norm also meshes thematically well with ranger given their hunter background and animal summon racials.

If you meant exploration as in breaking out of map, engineer is a good choice because of the jump on rifle as well as still having access to easy perma swiftness, and good access to stealth.

I’d say i’d use necro or ranger , and maybe warrior

I got wc on 2w,1e,1n,1t,1m,1g,1r

ranger and necro were very easy, thief was more squishy but stealth can make a lot passable, mesmer can be tricky, ele was very very annoying though I play it most, and guard and warrior can withstand a lot leaving a few skill points mostly in orr a bit tricky.. had an engi at l80 once but deleted him… still am glad I did so cause I did not like the proffession. Engi can do nearly everything though. you can get stealth woith ranger (very short), engineer (ok , but longer duration, thief, well it cans tealth as often if you want, mesmer will stalth a few times as well. Norn is also an option…

Hwarang.4789:

Hi, i’m looking for a class/race with high mobility, since i’m probs just going to explore the whole map of Guild Wars 2. Don’t like to stay in one spot for hours

I’m glad I didn’t read the forums when I was first playing else I might not have chosen mesmer as my main. Since then I’ve heard they are difficult to level and very slow. I didn’t have any problem with leveling my main mesmer or getting 100% map completion with her. Now granted I have leveled my first 2 mesmers under the old trait system. And although the 3rd one I leveled under the new system her traits were grandfathered in, it was a much more painful process because I knew what traits I wanted and I had to wait until level 60 to get “create clone on dodge”.

And yes mesmers have no utility for a speed boost for running along but they are very mobile in combat. For increased speed there are runes (I have superior runes of the traveler on my main), sigils (I have superior sigil of speed on my 3rd mesmer’s focus) and food. And non of these take up a utility slot.

As for getting through trash mobs that you don’t want to bother with I love dodging forward leaving a clone in my place to draw aggro while I run merrily along. Also I use focus 4 to give a 33% increase in speed and then press focus 4 again to pull mobs in the area without drawing aggro. Also utilities such as blink for a teleport and decoy that will create a clone in your place while you turn invisible are useful getting through trash mobs as well as in combat.

I guess this is a long-winded way of saying any profession you enjoy playing will not seem hard or seem like it takes long to do map completion even if most players don’t appreciate the finer qualities of the profession.

I just made an Engineer, and I concur they are great for exploration. With speedy kits you can have perma swiftness (faster than a 25% signet or trait) and rocket boots has a low 20 second cooldown. If I skip hearts, I can get everything else in a map done in as little as 20 minutes (depending on map size/amount of impassable mountains etc). I found skipping the hearts initially and getting everything else on each map (treating each map like Orr: getting POIs, vistas, WPs and SPs) is really fast. Going back for hearts after that you can just ping pong between the WPs. It is much faster than doing each heart as you come to it.

You know, I’m going to get called all sorts for this, but.. it really doesn’t matter. Whatever race, profession, weapons or armour you use, you just need something that suits how you like to play.

Simply slot sigils of speed and runes of the centaur, pack and/or whatever else allows for swiftness increase. Then you can slot up minutes of swiftness, and then use any preferred profession mechanic for cheesily jumping ahead (GS 3 on Guardian, Ranger, Mesmer Blink, etc).

I like to keep moving on any profession, and I do tend to favour zerker stuff - however, you can try out whatever you like and see what suits you best. Once you get to 80, you might want to reconsider a few things as you’re likely kitten for other game play modes (including dungeons and fractals), but for just PvE map completion you shouldn’t have a whole heap of trouble, so long as you’re prepared to switch a few things around on the fly, and take a few minutes here and there to check yourself and what your needs are.

Ayrilana.1396:

yhvh.8703:

Mesmer is NOT the slowest class in the game. They can have perma swiftness too.

Is just harder/maybe inconvenient to have that compared to the other professions.

What perma swiftness?

Mantra of Recovery paired with Superior Runes of the Centaur, for the swiftness on heal bonus.

Sigpaos.2615:

Ayrilana.1396:

yhvh.8703:

Mesmer is NOT the slowest class in the game. They can have perma swiftness too.

Is just harder/maybe inconvenient to have that compared to the other professions.

What perma swiftness?

Mantra of Recovery paired with Superior Runes of the Centaur, for the swiftness on heal bonus.

Not really meaningful since it relies on gear. It’s no different than me saying any class is fast and can maintain swiftness if they consume spring rolls. You’re also assuming that everyone is level 80 or high enough to use those runes. .

Necromancers get signet of the locust with just 1 skill point, have long swiftness with warhorns, and they cam easily solo many champions that may be guarding points thanks to minions.

I’ve personally found elementalist the easiest. They can clear an entire enemy camp by dropping a sandstorm and fishing anyone inside with an ice bow #4, and you don’t care about enemies guarding points because you can simply go in there invulnerable. Better than stealth since it won’t affect you even if someone comes along and makes the champion attack catching you in the crossfire. And if you really want to solo a champion, you can always have a couple of stone elementals do the tanking for you.

maddoctor.2738:

Necromancers and Mesmers have maybe the worst mobility out of them all. They have good access to swiftness but that’s all.

You don’t say? I noticed that my “power” death shroud necro actually kills faster than my elementalist and survives longer than the warrior or even the guardian. Valid in groups too. The only reason I can’t play with my necro in dungeons/fractals is well known. But for solo I go necro all the way. Add to that the swiftness and it makes her my favorite character to play from all my 7 level 80s.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

There is also no other class than can deal with trash mobs as quickly and easily as guardians, even with a staff as one of your weapons. Simply stack might with staff 4, switch to greatsword, use ‘Save Yourselves!’ to buff up yourself even more and quickly press 5, 5, 4, 2 and you’re done. This will usually kill all the mobs around you in 1 swoop. Open-world PvE is really that simple.

I will use this as just one example to why you’re proposal for staff doesn’t make sense …

So you’re going to stack might and swap weapons to kill … TRASH.

Here’s a simpler approach. Put down a symbol with Mace, then three autos. Dead.

Here is another: Leap with GS, then #2. Dead

Here is another: #2 with Hammer, 3 autos. Dead

All three of those things … AOE as well. No nonsense with stacking might, swapping weapons, using hotbar skills. It’s just not necessary. This is why staff is crap in PVE; you need all that unnecessary stuff to make it good. I’m not debating that Guardian isn’t good for openworld PVE. My point is twofold; it’s not the best and staff is the WORST choice for a PVE weapon you can recommend.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Honestly, ANYTHING will do for open-world PvE.

Not relevant; OP isn’t interested in something that just ‘does’ in Open world. Funny how this becomes the fallback when I start challenging people on their open world experience “Doesn’t matter because it’s easy”.

Mobility in Open world is very simple; Running fast, clearing conditions on demand and wasting as little time with encounters as possible leading to killing fast, and not getting tied up with knockdowns, stuns, etc…

Guardian does this all very well but it just doesn’t have speed without compromising something else to get it; this is why it’s not as good as you think it is. When you suggest to use a staff as part of the scheme to get permaswiftness, you take it to an even worse level because you’re simply trading runspeed for damage. The worst part is that you don’t have to.

Race doesn’t really matter, but here are the 3 bed for open world PvE:

Warrior: Can travel the map faster than any other profession without any trait or rune changes. Also a solid all-around profession.

Thief: Almost as fast at traveling as a war and can use stealth to skip mobs, such as with many skill point capture points.

Ranger: solid ranged weapons and the pet will often allow you to afloat with mobs around, lol.

heartless.6803:

My first map completion was Guardian. Which I highly recommend against. They’re probably the slowest moving class, they have horrible health pool and can’t really solo with zerker gear because of said low health pool. Did I mention they’re slow? Staff sucks balls, lets be honest here staff as a weapon blows. You only see so many guardians with one because of it’s lootstick qualities and might stack.

Guard easily gets 100% swiftness with staff along with Retreat/Save Yourselves. It does reuquire some trait investment to lower the cd, but it’s not that bad. Add in a GS as secondary weapon and you’re more mobile than even a ranger (although mobs hitting your symbol can slow you down a bit).

But I’m guessing you’ve never leveled a Mesmer, lol.

I mentioned this a few times but I can’t stress enough how invaluable this is for map completion.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spring_Roll

Ranger is the best all-round profession for open world PvE.

- Longbow does good damage and has the highest attack range. Ranger also has perhaps the greatest variety of weapon types and skills for single and multiple target damage.

- Pets allow you to take on most enemies solo. Hell, you can go afk and they’ll protect you. They’re also very good at reviving from the downed state.

- There’s a sigil for a permanent +25% swiftness as well as offhand Warhorn and an Elite skill that complement it well.

Ranger. It even has the word “range” in its name!
Also, you are never alone.

(Meaning if you afk, your pet can help you fend off easier wandering monsters)

heartless.6803:

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s the slowest moving class in game with the lowest health pool.

My Guardian in Nomad gear can take a lot more punishment then my elementalist in zerker