Guild Wars 2

What is the ‘best’ class with the most sustainability to get through the game? A class I won’t die fast with, does good damage?

Pros?
Cons?

lol

Guardian, Mesmer, Warrior, Necromancer, Engineer, Ranger, Elementalist and Thief because reasons. =D

heavies,
warrior is leveling immortal, followed by guardian.
rest of the classes can die.
thief and elementalist die too much at lower levels.

Warrior, uncontested.

Best self-buffing potential, high solo DPS, high base defensive stats, amazing access to evades/blocks.

Wow this game has serious class balance issues….

Thief with unicorn build is probably the most die-hard class in the game.
You can tank any amount of mobs because you’re virtually evading all the time, and should you deplete initiative you can just stealth off.

Love how people think Guard/War are the best defensive classes.
Never getting hit is better than getting hit for less / healing.

Red Falcon.8257:

Thief with unicorn build is probably the most die-hard class in the game.
You can tank any amount of mobs because you’re virtually evading all the time, and should you deplete initiative you can just stealth off.

Love how people think Guard/War are the best defensive classes.
Never getting hit is better than getting hit for less / healing.

You do no damage, while taking no damage. Seems pro. Compare any solo warrior kill(s) to solo thief kill(s).

Warrior hands down.
Having 400HP/s ALWAYS on, without the worrying of being interrupted and without having to do anything is pretty much why they have the best survivability in the game. Add to it top tier mobility (in and out of combat) and top tier cleave damage, easy access to stability and a lot of crowd control skills. Not to mention that their Fire Fields are better than Elementalist’s ones and that their conditions can wreck almost any build.
Need to know more?

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

You do no damage, while taking no damage. Seems pro. Compare any solo warrior kill(s) to solo thief kill(s).

Shoulda learn what you’re talking about before talking.

A Thief on unicorn build like this applies 20-25 bleeds permanently on an area and reapplies it constantly so removing it is useless, plus poison and torment.
It deals great damage and never dies.
A warrior might kill faster, but it can die. A dead warrior deals 0 DPS.

Red Falcon.8257:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

You do no damage, while taking no damage. Seems pro. Compare any solo warrior kill(s) to solo thief kill(s).

Shoulda learn what you’re talking about before talking.

A Thief on unicorn build like this applies 20-25 bleeds permanently on an area and reapplies it constantly so removing it is useless, plus poison and torment.
It deals great damage and never dies.
A warrior might kill faster, but it can die. A dead warrior deals 0 DPS.

You should learn how to play a warrior so that you don’t die. He asked what was the best, not what was the easiest. In addition, learning how to play a condition spec isn’t going to benefit you at all. Learning how to play a power warrior will translate into team play/high-end play if you wish to do that later on.

Also that build is really bad, but I guess I’m not surprised.

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

You should learn how to play a warrior so that you don’t die. He asked what was the best, not what was the easiest. In addition, learning how to play a condition spec isn’t going to benefit you at all. Learning how to play a power warrior will translate into team play/high-end play if you wish to do that later on.

Also that build is really bad, but I guess I’m not surprised.

That’s not the point.
OP asked for the “best solo class” not “what deals the most DPS before dying while in a team”.
Warrior can’t solo some content such as some champs or events with tons of vets/champs, sone dungeons, etc… unicorn Thief can solo anything.

Also, note that opinions lose credibility if you post them in an uneducated manner, and insulting or insinuating one has less skill than you (unlikely, mained a warrior for 3000 hours), just buries your crediblity even further.
I suggest avoiding that kinda stuff in future.

Forgive cookie, he’s used to the dungeon forum, things tend to go a little differently over there. If your thief build is really as immortal as you say, That is most certainly useful for soloing things, but depending on whether you are soloing open world content or dungeons, warrior may be Preferable because if well done you can skip a lot of time fighting a boss, and time=continued focus=difficulty.

Personally I don’t really have much to offer to the thread, Guardians seemed to be the best solo choice to me, because his name says survivability and is a little under warrior in damage. I personally havent played enough classes/builds to really make a solid statement though.

Red Falcon.8257:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

You should learn how to play a warrior so that you don’t die. He asked what was the best, not what was the easiest. In addition, learning how to play a condition spec isn’t going to benefit you at all. Learning how to play a power warrior will translate into team play/high-end play if you wish to do that later on.

Also that build is really bad, but I guess I’m not surprised.

That’s not the point.
OP asked for the “best solo class” not “what deals the most DPS before dying while in a team”.
Warrior can’t solo some content such as some champs or events with tons of vets/champs, sone dungeons, etc… unicorn Thief can solo anything.

Also, note that opinions lose credibility if you post them in an uneducated manner, and insulting or insinuating one has less skill than you (unlikely, mained a warrior for 3000 hours), just buries your crediblity even further.
I suggest avoiding that kinda stuff in future.

Who has ever talked about champs?
@MexicanCookie: who has ever talked about soloing dungeons? lol

I think the OP has just asked what class has the best balance between survivability and damage – in one word, sustain. And it is quite clear to me that, taking ALL aspects of the game into account, Warrior is, hands down, the winner.
Of course a Thief can kill a vet by taking 0 damage. But that’s just ONE of the thousands of scenarios this game can offer.

Cheers

Sanderinoa.8065:

Personally I don’t really have much to offer to the thread, Guardians seemed to be the best solo choice to me, because his name says survivability and is a little under warrior in damage. I personally havent played enough classes/builds to really make a solid statement though.

This wants a word with you.

I’d go with a well rounded (build/armor) Shout Guardian for solo pve. I may be biased though, since that’s what my main solo pve character is :P Usually use a mix of soldier/knight armor (maybe a couple valk trinkets or beryls in them) with soldier runes. Has a lot of condition cleansing/a block/invul and a ton of boons.

I hate to wade into discussions like this; felt the need to just add two things:

@OP:

1) play the profession that BEST fits YOUR strengths/weaknesses (innate way you play, think), and you will survive far better than trying to square peg yourself into a round hole of a character because someone else told you it worked (for them).

2) Having said that, I will pass along what ANet said pre-release / early release: Warrior and Guardian are good starter professions (that help you get a solid handle on the game).

Now, having said that above: I’m at 45 characters, 17 at 80 and a lot of time solo and in guild groups (dungeons/fractals) ….(and I am by NO means trying to claim any sort of expertise here)…

and I have a question for you…

…. are you just looking to get a character to level 80 quickly and easily? Are you looking for a good group character? Running with a guild, looking for PuGs?
Are you planning to do WvW, SPvP or just PvE or a combo of some?

As said above, multiple times, Warrior and Guardian have a lot of built in defense/healing depending on your build. Warriors can stand there and take a lot of abuse. Guardians can as well, but may take longer to kill things solo. Guardian is very gear dependent and the tradeoffs between damage and defense can be a little harder.

A wells-spec’d Necro with at least 20 up the blood line has very good survivability (incoming “healing” as it is doing damage from life taps.) It can melee (tank), has healing/protection circles and good defense using Deathshroud. Yes, in cloth, yes solo up against Champions. And it has some of the best built-in AoE DPS.

A ranger using a protection based pet, or healing pet, or… list goes on… can do some of the quickest killing solo, and easily survive a whopping amount especially if played in a way that makes use of regen/cleanse field.

There will be posters here who claim only “x” profession with “y” build works. There are some general “best practices”. (And in some cases, such as high level fractals, this really does hold true.)

Not going to go through all the other classes and what they can offer. Point is, get creative and understand the trait abilities of the profession and how YOU can best use it.

Means a little bit of homework, rather than just point blank asking what is generally used.

Means paying attention to what it is you really want to do in this game, and understanding the trade offs.

Which is why you started the thread.

There are talent calculators around that can help you figure out not just what you want to play, but how.

goldenwing.8473:

Now, having said that above: I’m at 45 characters, 17 at 80 and a lot of time solo and in guild groups (dungeons/fractals) ….(and I am by NO means trying to claim any sort of expertise here)…

lolwut?
15chars

They all can, if you play them right.

Engineer is pretty great, going with elixers and using rifle/grenades or flamethrower.

hihey.1075:

Not to mention that their Fire Fields are better than Elementalist’s ones

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fire_field

lol

current warriors with regen sig are ridonculous. you add their insane mobility (probably the best in the game), stun locking like no other, damage/condi immunity, 100swag spam on 3sec stuns all day——-

Wolfheart.1938:

hihey.1075:

Not to mention that their Fire Fields are better than Elementalist’s ones

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fire_field

lol

By saying “better” I was clearly referring not to the field itself, but to the skill which activates the field. Longbow Warriors Burst skill is 1000 times better than any fire field skill an Ele can use, both in terms of Cooldown and utility.
I have always wondered why that skill is better than Ring of Fire.

Once you learn how not to die, Thief beats all hands down with the regular mob grind kill speed. If, however, you need tagging to level off events, there are a few better options. Overall though thief blows away the competition.

If you can’t survive with a bursty dps room sweeping class, you can always crutch on some heavy, slow killing class like guardian or warrior.

Any class as long as you have gear for your level or near your level and put trait points into offensive/defensive traits. Elementalist is easy to die with if you don’t know what you’re doing, same with Thief.

Red Falcon.8257:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

You should learn how to play a warrior so that you don’t die. He asked what was the best, not what was the easiest. In addition, learning how to play a condition spec isn’t going to benefit you at all. Learning how to play a power warrior will translate into team play/high-end play if you wish to do that later on.

Also that build is really bad, but I guess I’m not surprised.

That’s not the point.
OP asked for the “best solo class” not “what deals the most DPS before dying while in a team”.
Warrior can’t solo some content such as some champs or events with tons of vets/champs, sone dungeons, etc… unicorn Thief can solo anything.

You need to stop saying that. A good warrior won’t die solo’ing something (see: Wethospu), and isn’t limited in what it can or cannot solo. A thief is exactly the same thing. The limit to what can be solo’d is completely reliant on the player.

A warrior has better sustain through healing signet, and you can combine it with life steal food for almost 800 hp/s @ lvl80. Thieves have signet of malice, but it isn’t as good on a single target, different story if you’re cleaving. The warrior has more damage potential than the thief, and it also has more ‘panic’ options (evades/blocks/invulns/escapes).

But really, the biggest thing of all is that by playing a Power based warrior, you’re actually going to learn how to improve your own playing abilities. You’ll learn how to read and adjust to boss tells, how to use rotations and how to not waste your cooldowns. These will all become very important if you ever wish to do some of the more difficult content, either solo or in a team. Playing a condition thief with gear using 2/3 defensive stats isn’t going to help you do anything, and is a playstyle you should avoid in PvE; similar to AH/Cleric guardians. Best thing is, you don’t need to learn any of this until you want to start solo’ing some champions or something. In the mean time, you won’t get punished that hard at all for just cleaving your way through hoardes of trash in open-world.

@hihey, I don’t think I said solo’ing dungeons either :\

@Sandy, yes, that is true. I should have known

@OP, I would highly recommend you roll a warrior. If you don’t want to play a warrior, I would just highly recommend you avoid playing Red Falcons build.

For a new player to the game a warrior is easy mode. Thieves are really difficult for new players and there’s no point recommending a level 80 fully traited build with runes and sigils and high initiative and fast endurance regen that can do fancy things with skilled play. As much as I like my thief, thieves are clearly not the ‘best’ class with the most sustainability that won’t die fast. They are in fact the exact opposite of the original poster’s request.

Warrior has a constant heal sure.

But guard can perma blind, and aegis every fight indef.

A blind mob does no damage, a blocked mob does no damage and you dont need a shield for it its just there.

Basically up to you.

Warrior is good but guards are equally good. And to be honest guards are on par if not better than warriors with their dps these days. Hundred blades now does a bit less damage than a Guards Whirl.

Definitely a warrior. With guardian second.

Depends.

Warrior can take a group, but if they get overwhelmed with healing signet they are likely to fall.

Thief can disengage and heal up, reenter full hp if they want. Downfall being they may have to do this often depending on the skill level. With almost perma evade though I don’t see how unless it’s a field you’re dying from.

Ranger can send the might of the pet in there and just take nothing or boss mode heal with trolls potion.

Guardian can master heal and slowly heal a ton.

Ele and engi both have massive burst healing when mastered.

Necro has a 2nd life pool, if you can work around it, the trade off is really nice.

I wouldn’t say there is any “best” sustain class, it comes down to how you want to recover.

“Warrior can take a group, but if they get overwhelmed with healing signet they are likely to fall.”

Not really. There’s a signet that can be pressed for cure all conditions. There’s a signet that can be pressed for stabilty. If 100 blades doesn’t smash up the group of mobs there are still two big mobility skills left on the greatsword to get out of trouble.

Remove all conditions, doesn’t mean immunity(as in they can be reapplied). Stability actually backfires sometimes when there is an attack that is meant to knock you back (can’t name them this exact second). Basically the skill does a ton of damage if you stay in the area, so usually they have some sort of launch or knockback. If you have stability you get hit multiple times and it just… kills.

I say with healing signet because you don’t use the active, so if the passive is getting overwhelmed you gata jump out for a second. Not saying its a bad skill, just that it has limits and it isn’t exactly the quickest recovery on its own. When in the right range though warrior can swing away with no worries.

I’ll just say Ranger- and run out of this thread….

Morrigan.2809:

I’ll just say Ranger- and run out of this thread….

I leveled a ranger as my first class at launch…. all I have to say is you are right.

Pet spec, short bow = champ soloer as you level. and you have very little chance to get hit or die.

The best class for you is the one you enjoy playing. Try them all, see what works for you. They’re all viable.

Guardian has by far the easiest to use survivability. I don’t get why ppl think Warrior has better survivability. Anyhow, Guardian is the way to go, by far. You can easily kill 10 enemies of the same level just with some AoE attacks a few dodges. Rest is self heal and a kittenload of healing skills.

If you play a Warrior with Berserker armor you kill extremely fast but you go down fast as well, more ore less. They are still better than all the squishy classes with more defensive traits :-) I like both Professions – you’re pick.

Thief. Solos every thing but champs with blind and doesn’t get touched.

Azure Prower.8701:

Thief. Solos every thing but champs with blind and doesn’t get touched.

Warrior. Solos everything AND champs.

basically on any profession you can build a condi tank, that deals some damage (~2k/s) and is immortal in pve… but generally same as The Mexican Cookie I strongly recommend not to use those – those are nap builds, you will learn nothing (except maybe the first week of play) and make this way to easy game even more faceroll. If you indeed want to play like this then confusion messmer (huge conf dmg, and impossible to die) and even easier to play the thief mentioned by redFalcon (easy 25 bleeds and also not possible to die) are probably best two options… but all the remaning classes are not far behind.
Overal the “best” class in terms of damage/survivability/fun ratio is imho dps warrior but it needs some practice to use (a month of gameplay, 30-100h) and x00h to become warrior master.
The last 2 classes/builds that fits your description are dps d/x ele and dps engi.

Lavadiel.6231:

confusion messmer (huge conf dmg, and impossible to die)

I’m sorry, but I think this statement just dropped your credibility by 95%.

1. Confusion in PvE… are you kidding me? Most mobs attack super-slow.
2. Confusion in WvW or PvP… half the damage. Nobody cares unless it’s like uhm… MANY stacks of it.

Now if you meant condition Mesmer, then that would be another story. Still not really the best choice for PvE (damage-wise that is), but viable imo. And yeah, you can survive quite a bit of stuff if you take a staff as one of your weapons.

Warrior is Anets favorite class, nuff said.

Warrior was the top class damage and survive wise a few months back but honestly Guard has taken up that throne.

Better defense and better DPS, esp after the HB nerf.

med armor: stealth thief
light armor: fire ele (fire/earth)
heavy armor: regen warrior (signet/mango pies)
pros: dps + survivability
cons: …