Guild Wars 2

I hope its the right section of the forum to put this on. Anyways, my main is lvl 73 ranger and i want to get lvl 80, full gear and complete more of the world.

But after that i want to start playing a different class. I found ranger unsuitable for playing alone and overall kinda weak. It’s only good against single targets and has no survivability. I play alone most of the time and i want to pick a class that is the best for playing solo.

I though about either warrior or guardian. If you know any other class that’s good without anyone helping it then i would appreciate if you told me about it :).

Ranger have the best survivability, imo. I died 2-3 times while leveling from 1 to 80 in standard PvE.

Both Warrior and Guardian have good AoE.

kitteno.8103:

Ranger have the best survivability, imo. I died 2-3 times while leveling from 1 to 80 in standard PvE.

Both Warrior and Guardian have good AoE.

The thing is that the kitten pet often just runs into like 6 people and dies instantly. Then i’am left with half of my normal damage and all these guys beating the s*** out of me if i don’t run away. And i have only one healing skill and crappy regeneration signet :P.

all classes can actually do it if well traited and so on…
while guardian my be the easiest almost all others can do pretty well (ranger being indeed a problem due to pet sometimes running into trouble)

Personally I went for thief and have no regrets (even with a support based build)… (Note: all these i’m going to say are trait dependant) depending mostly on dodge thiefs can dodge 3x in a row and take less time to dodge again, we can also use invisibility to escape when the fight is getting too much out of our hand, using venoms we can also revover extra health that if paired with the healing signet makes us almost able to avoind clicking the button 6… also with a shortbow you get some nice AoE damage while with sword/pistol u get AoE blind… still if want to solo dagger can burst some hell damage and pistol will make a more stable one if built into condition

Axel.4018:

The thing is that the kitten pet often just runs into like 6 people and dies instantly. Then i’am left with half of my normal damage and all these guys beating the s*** out of me if i don’t run away. And i have only one healing skill and crappy regeneration signet :P.

Pet swap, plus various evade skills on shortbow, plus that lighting jump utility. But you’re right, Ranger have horrible AoE and therefore is bad for PvE. Play Warrior.

Thief,Warrior or Mesmer if you like the colour purple. The rest of the classes arn’t even worth mentioning. And I leveled Ranger and Engineer to 80, what a waste of bloody time.

Thing about soloing in this game is that while the mechanics are focused on sPVP mobility, the PVE AI will basically just banzai rush you and virtually force you into the proverbial “tank and spank” unless you get very good at kiting them around the place.

Never mind story episodes that will drop a ton of mobs on you while your in cramped quarters. Sure, there is likely a NPC or two around to “help”. But they will drop so quickly that even as a distraction they are useless.

In essence the game quickly devolves into running in circles with anything you have that can AOE spam unless you happen to have a weapon that heal (not that they really count for much even with 30 points dropped into HP) or preferably one that launches or similar as part of the auto-attack chain.

Axel.4018:

It’s only good against single targets and has no survivability.

Take the trait that makes arrows pierce targets, and you suddenly have a lot of area of effect damage. Combine it with the trait that increases endurance regeneration by 50%, pair it with one of the bear-based pets, and you have a lot of survivability. I honestly die less with my ranger than with my guardian.

I’ve played ranger, warrior and guardian throught to lvl 80 and they are all pretty good for solo play in my experience. The ranger with sword+warhorn and traps actually does give reasonable AOE and coped quite well with cursed shore farming, but does require more care than the heavy armor classes in this regard.

Of the three professions I found that warrior gives the best uncomplicated survivability and decent damage for solo PvE play – although may not necessarily be the most interesting class to play because of this. Guardians are of course very good too and it pretty much comes down to the build you use and personal preference – I’ve tended to build my guardian to shine in group play with altruistic healing builds.

So, in summary I’d say if you love the ranger, there are ways to make it work very well for solo play with the right build. If you want to try a new profession which is easy to play, harder to master but gives a good balance between survivability and damage my top pick would be warrior.

Erasculio.2914:

Axel.4018:

It’s only good against single targets and has no survivability.

Take the trait that makes arrows pierce targets, and you suddenly have a lot of area of effect damage. Combine it with the trait that increases endurance regeneration by 50%, pair it with one of the bear-based pets, and you have a lot of survivability. I honestly die less with my ranger than with my guardian.

Let me make something clear. The endurance regen works after you’re out of the fight. That trait speeds up the regenaration you get anyways, so it’s pretty much useless. And piercing arrows don’t help when my pet gets dropped and i get surrounded and destroyed.

I’m a Necro and have 5 minions so there’s 6 of us always roaming around killing everything. Great for PvE soloing.

I’ve worked on Warrior, Guardian, Ranger and Elementalist so far. I’d say my warrior is having the easiest time of it right now.

Mesmer. You’re always rolling with your gang of yourselves.

Axel.4018:

Let me make something clear. The endurance regen works after you’re out of the fight.

Nope. It works all the time. Take a look at how much endurance you get within a fight with it and without it.

Axel.4018:

And piercing arrows don’t help when my pet gets dropped and i get surrounded and destroyed.

If you didn’t do anything to keep your pet alive and it dies, dodge back (since you have a lot of endurance anyway ;-) and stay behind your enemies, then you can hit plenty of them with your piercing arrows.

Eugenics.6953:

Thief,Warrior or Mesmer if you like the colour purple. The rest of the classes arn’t even worth mentioning. And I leveled Ranger and Engineer to 80, what a waste of bloody time.

He is talking about PvE and your advise is to roll a Mesmer? Have you ever tried to level a Mesmer in PvE? It probably is the weakest PvE profession in the whole kitten game and before level 40 it is just pure pain.
If you want an easy to level profession go with guardian or warrior. Both are fairly fun and pretty fast in getting things down.

The Ranger is the best solo profession, mainly because you always have a pet that takes damage for you, and that can revive you, or deal damage, while you are downed. You just have to learn to take care of the pet, instead of expecting it to survive everything without your help.

You have to learn to heal your pet even if you have full life yourself, use pet swapping before the pet dies, call the pet back to you if it’s low on health and you can’t switch pets, use different pets depending on the situation you are facing (dungeons=bears, world bosses=range pets, multiple mobs=drakes, and so on..), and learn when to use the pet for optimal damage.

If you don’t care for using pets, then go with a Guardian.

PolarApe.9351:

Mesmer. You’re always rolling with your gang of yourselves.

This made me chuckle.

My highest level character is a Necro (75) I am built for Minions and I am a force to recon with in PVE. Sometimes I think to myself how unfair it is that I can pretty easily rampage through hoards of mobs when my poor Ranger (52) spends most of the time running in a circle and using my heal on cool down.

I guess if you are built for AoE like mentioned above you can deal with hoards better but my Ranger is a ranger, not a pet using warrior/thief hybrid. I want to use ranged weapons and think the class should excel in doing so in any given situation. Just my opinion.

To the OP, I love my Necro, I find it the most rewarding for solo pve play.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Eugenics.6953:

Thief,Warrior or Mesmer if you like the colour purple. The rest of the classes arn’t even worth mentioning. And I leveled Ranger and Engineer to 80, what a waste of bloody time.

He is talking about PvE and your advise is to roll a Mesmer? Have you ever tried to level a Mesmer in PvE? It probably is the weakest PvE profession in the whole kitten game and before level 40 it is just pure pain.
If you want an easy to level profession go with guardian or warrior. Both are fairly fun and pretty fast in getting things down.

I have found this to be completely untrue. Necro. Leveling a Necro was torture in my experience, and my Mesmer is rolling through stuff easily.

Greatsword and Scepter/Focus provides high direct damage and utility, respectively. Well timed Confusion wrecks mobs, Illusionary Berserker the same…Greatsword #1 eats mob HP as long you’re not dumb enough to stand on top of your target…and it synergizes with Greatsword #5 knockback. Stun breaks, escape mechanisms, I love it.

I dunno man, keep your weapons and gear appropriate to your level and you’re good w/ Mesmer. I admit I may have been playing my Necro in a bad way to level (I went condition damage from the get go and avoided minions), but Mesmer just not a weak profession at all.

Personally having a blast on my new Engineer (playing pretty much 100% solo as of now) at level 22. Some great chain AoE abilities, immobilizes, kits such as flamethrower and elixir gun.. not only effective, but fun!

Warrior/guardian. Guardian has the best survivability since it self heals tho warrior can just truck on thru enemies like they aren’t there. Seen it a hundred times now in orr.

Hands down Ranger, stand back and shoot and let the pet tank, easiest class in the game.

Nayru.3947:

kitteno.8103:

But you’re right, Ranger have horrible AoE and therefore is bad for PvE.

Axe & Torch + Sword & Warhorn + Traps disagree. You haven’t played Ranger, have you?

Right, let’s spend all weapon slots and few utility skills to be almost as viable as button “2” on Warrior’s GS. Seriously.

Nayru.3947:

Nah… you just need to l2p. No point arguing a hundred blades spammer.

And you’re telling me this after wasting Ranger on bad AoE set-up. But if you find enjoyment in being a try-hard, why not? More power to you.

Ranger is the best. Great dps (that is damage per second, not biggest single number fools) with far better survivability than warrior, and passive 25% speed signet for getting around. Just put at least 15 pts into BM traits and take Master’s Bond, it makes your pet A LOT tougher. For normal soloing 3 or less mobs, just use a cat and kill them super fast. For tough stuff you can swap to bears or devourers as needed.

Unless it’s significantly changed since I last logged, signet warrior is just about the easiest leveling experience you can have, virtually unstoppable.

Definately Ranger for solo PvE imo. Standard pulls while leveling were 4-7 mobs with a juvenille bear tanking. Ranger was pretty untouchable.

As for the people saying Warrior. A Warrior really doesn’t even come close to Ranger.

I play all 8 classes and Warrior is easily the one that can tear through PvE with the least effort/thought put into it.

Every class can be used to solo, but for easy mindless tearing through things, go Warrior. Warrior is very bad at healing and getting rid of conditions but can tear through groups before healing becomes an issue, usually.

Have played Guardian and Mesmer to 80, and while both are just fine for leveling, the Guardian will mostly likely get everything done faster, and at 80, if/when you start farming mats and the like, the Guardian will do it faster.

That being said, everything will be much more interesting if you do it on a Mesmer, but if by “best” you mean either easiest or most efficient, then I’d go with Guardian over Mesmer.

Can’t speak for other classes, as my next highest is 38 Elementalist, but my experience thus far with Ele is that it’s somewhere in between Guardian and Mesmer, and this is with my Ele having the benefit of crafted gear all the way (Tailor, Weaponsmith, Artificing, Cooking, Jewelcrafting all at max), while neither the Guard or Mesmer had this benefit.

Axel.4018:

But after that i want to start playing a different class. I found ranger unsuitable for playing alone and overall kinda weak. It’s only good against single targets and has no survivability. I play alone most of the time and i want to pick a class that is the best for playing solo.

I have an 80 ranger that I have mostly soloed. No offense, but when I read this I actually wondered if we were even playing the same class. The ranger is extremely good for solo PvE. Both the longbow and shortbow have a nice AoE, and if you are specced in traps you have even more AoE options. I have also found the ranger to be surprisingly tough and eminently capable in melee combat.

Now, I have read that rangers tend to be weak in PvP, but I have only played PvE, and as I stated, they are very good in that area. It’s no accident that most botters pick the ranger and brown bear combo; it’s very survivable and provides plenty of AoE options for loot tagging. Now, we even have a 25% speed buff, which makes the class yet more effective in PvE.

My only real issue with the PvE ranger is that it feels a bit one dimensional. However, my main is an elementalist, and I figure after playing the ele any class aside from engineer or mesmer is going to seem a little bland. But, that is just my personal bias, others will obviously differ.

I have leveled Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer, Elementalist, and Ranger to 80 and am working on an Engineer at the moment. In almost any game the hunter/ranger will be an easy class to level because of the pets. The pets, right now, are weak and have a bad AI, but I still believe they are useful. You essentially get access to 2 in any given combat scenario and if you are facing many and/or tough mobs you will need to swap your pets on cooldown. Cooldown here about matches their lifespan. A ranger with a couple bears, or jellyfish underwater is going to be fairly easy mode for leveling.

That said, none of the classes were difficult to level. The Mesmer, realistically, probably took longer as they generally take longer to kill mobs. However, I didn’t notice as the Mesmer is incredibly fun to play.

The engineer is one of the most troubled classes and I actually have the lowest deaths/hour so far on him at level 38—I’ve only died once so far. I think probably it’s that I’ve improved in my understanding of mobs, environment, and combat mechanics in GW2.

My own feeling is that warrior, guardian, or ranger would be the top three in terms of ease, especially solo. If you like melee warrior or guardian. If you like a strong ranged option go with ranger.

neon.4863:

I play all 8 classes and Warrior is easily the one that can tear through PvE with the least effort/thought put into it.

Every class can be used to solo, but for easy mindless tearing through things, go Warrior. Warrior is very bad at healing and getting rid of conditions but can tear through groups before healing becomes an issue, usually.

You didn’t play Ranger properly if you think Warrior is a better solo PvE class. There is nothing in this game that can touch a Ranger for solo PvE leveling.

I primarily play ranger but I found my warrior alt just as easy to level. I’m sure one is slightly easier than the other, but its not really enough to make a distinct choice between the two on account of difficulty.

For basic starter builds:
Ranger has better self healing and a pet
Warrior has a superior tank and several easy damage stoppers (KD, invulnerability)

I found that stating a toughness/healing power warrior created a perma tank with Healing Signet (passive effect) on several enemies throughout the the world even at higher levels. AKA I could stand there and let them hit me and I wouldn’t die.

I got my ranger to 80 solo. I went with Short Bow and Greatsword. It feels pretty balanced – I use each about half the time depending on the situation. I tried all the other weapon combinations as well, but they weren’t as much fun or as effective for me.

It is more enjoyable solo than the other classes for me.

I got my Ranger to 80 by using the Longbow and Sword/Warhorn combination. The trick with pets is to make sure that you swap them out quickly when they’re getting ready to die.

One often overlooked aspect of Rangers is that you can damage multiple opponents by getting them to attack your pet and aiming at the enemy furthest from you. Your arrows will rip through all enemies in a line, damaging all of them and if your pet is in the path of the arrow, he will be healed. When you are firing rapid arrows, you keep your pet up while taking down multiple enemies simultaneously.

You also have to be fast on your feet and dodge a lot when they come at you. Being able to keep away from your enemies and still hit them while running is a tactic that will kill a tough enemy and keep you out of harms way. I’ve taken down several champions solo with these tactics. Unlike heavily armored classes, the Ranger does a lot of damage on the move and has the best survivability when they do everything they can not to get hit in the first place.

Taking some toughness doesn’t hurt, though, and will increase the Rangers chance to keep walking when they do get hit.

Finally, the Sword/Warhorn combination is awesome, so long as you are aware of your surroundings. You have a lot of dodging abilities built into the swords skills, but if you don’t watch what you do, you will kill yourself by throwing yourself off a cliff (I probably died that way more times than from actual monsters killing me).

If your gonna limit it to a Warrior or a Guardian go with the Guardian its got the best defensive skills in all the game and can dish out a fair bit of damage as well .

In PvP: Mesmer and Thief
In PvE: Guardian and ranger (thousands of bots can’t be wrong)

Engineer is a great solo openworld pve class, though broken and bugged it is great in limited openworld pve. If you also need to escape mobs this is your class. Very good aoe damage from the bomb trait and just under average main weapon damage, usually used to supplement the bombs or grenades, though grenades took another nerf for some reason.

The Engineer shines in underwater combat. If this were a game based on all underwater combat the Engineer might be the highest played class.

I prefer my guardian now though as it can take a ton of damage my engineer could not, though the damage output is not close to the Engineer, not typing the Engineer has high damage by any means, just constant middle of the road aoe in most cases.

Engineer is an escape artist, keep that in mind if traited and skilled in a certain way.

If you can kite well the Engineer can do much more than the Guardian, though the guardian can go places, active shrine areas for example that would cripple the Engineer, and survive.

A side note on solo/group pvp. The Engineer is a low utility/versitile class compared to a Guardian or Ele or Mesmer. Every class will pretty much outshine the Engy in pvp played by only marginal players. Playstyle comments aside. If you like solo pvp, just yesterday i fought a guardian, though he could not kill me i could not kill him, i was very slowly being worn down and had to run away (escape artist), up on a high perch i watched that same guardian kill 3 other players that tried tooutlast him, this is with the nerf to healing Guardians took recently.

With the last comment by the Anet employee that more class changes are imminent, the two i mentioned have been “adjusted” already or are still skill bugged and probably wont see the big changes other very powerful classes will, such as Warrior, Elementalist, and Mesmer, in that order.

Choose your solo class wisely. I suggest the two i mentioned that have been “adjusted” already.

All my classes solo well. Necro was the easiest followed by the Guardian and Engineer. Honestly, all them are pretty easy.

Galrond.5972:

In PvE: Guardian and ranger (thousands of bots can’t be wrong)

They can actually.

There are still a lot of things even the most skilless players can do easier than bots can and vice-verse.

Guys did you not even read this guys post? Seriously, read it again and then tell him again, “Roll a Ranger” he did and he is almost 80. He wants a different profession. Personally I like Necro, your minions can die a lot but its fun still.

I don’t have a guardian, but my 80 lv shout warrior is pretty good at survival department. With power/toughness/vitality + some healing build I have 30k health 3k+ toughness, all my shouts heal and remove conditions (rune of the soldier). With my hammer + rifle I can easily solo any veterans, mob packs in Orr, I also solo’ed some mid level group events and champions. I’m often last man standing in dungeons and don’t need to be afraid to tank most of the enemies, unlike fe my lv 80 thief, who spends most of his time laying downed, unless I start spamming my stealth.

Yeah, I lose some damage with this build, but it have never been a problem to me.

Ranger is great for solo because no one will want you in their groups.

For PvE, warrior. For WvWvW, should you be brave/foolish enough to venture out alone, thief.

My “main” is my ranger and I love that profession. I go everywhere with her. I agree the pet running ahead and aggroing mobs I’m not anywhere near is a problem, but as SB ranger, I genuinely like the profession.

I have an 80 ele that I can’t stand. For whatever reasons I can’t play the class right. She dies instantly to any single mob and is simply useless.

I just started leveling a mesmer and the profession is really fun! I’m only level 11, but am really enjoying it so far. I’m hoping I don’t like her so much that she supplants my ranger as my main.

I have played all my characters solo to 80. My ranger is the one with most map complete. I think I’m at something like 82%, or close to that.

I can definitely see my mesmer going to 80. My ele, I just use for crafting and take her out to do the Maw event hoping I don’t get killed.

I like Engineer above all classes.

With Berserker’s and a few Valkyrie pieces here and there, I am able to tank Priest of Grenth for quite a bit. It has the most AoE skills in the game(Only 5 skills in it’s weapon arsenal can hit only a single target), so it’s easy to take down many opponents.

I have every profession at 80 except Engineer and he is 45 now. I’ve been playing my latest character to 80, a Necro, a lot lately as I enjoy the play a lot. Probably had the most fun leveling with my Mesmer as I felt relatively untouchable (I like kiting). Realistically, all the classes are fine for playing solo. It’s in grouping where problems begin to surface and that’s mainly for Engi, Ranger, and Necro. Condition damage itself presents a problem due to the way Anet has chosen to implement it. Rather than maintaining a players damage per tick, they manage a stack of bleeds on a mob. So, most groups really only benefit from one condition damage profession (build) which doesn’t add up to satisfying group play for anyone, but especially those with a condition build.

But, solo anything’s viable. You mention warrior or guardian. Both are strong choices for solo play. Warrior has high damage and cleave, so dealing with multiple mobs is easy. Just line them up and 100b them down. Rifle is also good for multi-target tagging (farming) with a high crit build and sigil of fire. Guardian does adequate damage and is very survivable. I used to hate the Staff because of low damage, but I’ve come to appreciate it over time. It’s got decent AoE. I definitely feel the most confident on my guardian. And you’re a boon factory and can be very supportive in the random groups you do find yourself in inevitably in this game. Warrior is a little less forgiving than guardian. The balance for the higher damage is lower survivability.

Ranger was my first profession I got to 80, but then I tried necromancer, I rarely die as a necro and am able to face and defeat large groups of mobs with all my minions. Minions seem so much sturdier than ranger pets. It’s now my most fave class I enjoy it heaps better than ranger.

But minions can’t be controlled and often run ahead like ranger pets, but it doesn’t matter as necro seems very capable on taking on groups. I find necro very fun and it has replaced my ranger as my main character.

Edit: so far I’ve levelled my necro to lvl 65.

I Have all 8 lvl 80’s my ranger was the first lvl 80.
but tbh guardian was the easiest imo and the most fun followed by the warrior.
The only reason the warrior came sec was his 100 blades,how many times i slightly pressed w and cancelled it out.I could have used duel axes,but i love the greatswords,and his heal is not very good.
Also i love the way the guardian can leap into the fight.and drop all his aoe’s,and able to do a big heal if needed.

From my experience in leveling to 80, I’d say:

Guardian is very surviveable at all stages of levelling. DPS is always a bit meh, but you can often pull 3-5 mobs at a time without problem, which speeds things up. People love to have you in groups.

Mesmer is fun, but rather weak from levels 1-39. But if you like trolling people, this is the way to go.

Thief is great for sneaking around Orr and stealth capping skill points and has great dps, but I’d say it is harder to play well than guardian. This is my favorite class to play at 80.

Warrior has more dps than guardian, but less survivability. The main benefit over guardian is that it has more viable ranged weapons.

Elementalist is like mesmer, in my opinion, weak from 1-39. But once you get some traits going with a D/D build you are very hard to kill. Staff is a joke solo, but very powerful in groups.

GUARDIAN SOLO BEASTS!!!!!!!!! nuff said