Guild Wars 2

There are certains classes which are nearly needed to have a reasonable experience in GW 2, them being Guardians*, Mesmers** and Warriors***.

It’s basically GW 2’s Trinity.

Support*, Utility**, Damage***.

While other classes can fill certain roles as well, they are just by far not as good as them.

Support:
The Guardian with his sheer amount of group support and control, that may be to much to even list up.

A Healing Power Necromancer with Staff and Wells can be an amazing support, but after all, he can’t keep up with all the Utility and Boons the Guardian has to offer.

Elementalist has great potential for healing and buffing, but over all comes short in terms of (group) survive ability and can’t compete with the shiny Guardian running ahead, smacking people in the ground while keeping his whole party alive, CC immune and stacked up with dmg buffs.

Engineer has a bit of everything. Average defense, average boon control, average healing, average utility.
But as Guardians are amazing in every of these aspects, why would you not take them instead?

Utility:
There is nothing that can compete with a Mesmer for Utility in the game. Miles behind (so far you might not even mention it) may be a Thief with some short group stealths and the Engineer with his (often more random than good) general utility.
But why take a Thief or Engineer when you can stealth, speed buff, teleport and haste your whole group as Mesmer?
Right, there is no reason.

Damage:
This one clearly goes to the Warrior.
The sheer amount of DPS, while still having a metric ton of health and armor, combined with easy access to some group utility leaves every competitor behind.

Rangers by far can’t keep up in DPS with a Warrior, while also not catching up with Support or Control. Besides that, they end up with lower base armor and health, making them more squishy while not making up for it.

Thieves may have some of the greatest burst (but Warrior burst is still much higher), but by no means can their dps come even close to a Warrior.
While they have some nice gimmicks like stealth, the group Mesmer fills that role already better, and in no universe they can make up for the lack of dmg, the incredible low base health, and medium armor a Thief has compared to a Warrior.

We already had a Engineer here and there, but the picture here is still the same.
He may be a good class to fill spots if you can’t find multiple Warrs/Guardians, but by no means can’t replace them in any GW 2 Trinity profession.
____________________________________________________

Tier 1 ( nearly mandatory for reasonable gameplay)
Mesmer (Utility), Guardian (Support), Warrior (Damage)

Tier 2 (can fill spots if you can’t find multiple T1 professions, but not replace them to the fullest potential)
Necromancer (Support), Engineer (Support; Utility), Elemantalist (Support)

Tier 3 (near useless, with low potential for a near mandatory role in the game)
Thief (-), Ranger (-)

(These Tiers, and the post as a whole, focuses on PvE and to some extend WvW and are not concerning sPvP. This is not representative of my opinion of the game and mere a potential subject of discussion.)

did you have to make another post with this.
it`s already in another thread, and it wasn`t accurate there either.

I suppose it depends on your definition of “reasonable”.

I find it more fun to run different party set-ups occasionally, though I’m not too concerned if my CoF run takes a minute or two longer so I am probably an outlier.

Shonie.5297:

did you have to make another post with this.
it`s already in another thread, and it wasn`t accurate there either.

I wanted to create a discussion about the specific idea of a “Trinity” existing in GW 2.

I’m not saying that I’m right, I’m not even saying it’s my opinion – it’s a subject for a discussion, and i let others decide if the Idea of needed professions in GW 2 is worth discussing or not.

It wasn’t that bad till I read ur “tiers”. Idk what game do you play but certainly not gw2. I bet you just read how everyone is glorifying these 3 classes and you wrote this post without any tests. Half of this is just not true and is based on major community opinion wnich is worthless.

Przemek.6835:

It wasn’t that bad till I read ur “tiers”. Idk what game do you play but certainly not gw2. I bet you just read how everyone is glorifying these 3 classes and you wrote this post without any tests. Half of this is just not true and is based on major community opinion wnich is worthless.

I don’t know why the “major community opinion” should be concerned as “worthless” and not being a matter of dicussion.

Arbitrary listings are arbitrary.

It’s not a trinity if it’s not required. People make up stuff because they’re used to it. But efficiency doesn’t equal requirement.

We ran a dungeon the other day with a mesmer, an engine, a ranger, a necro and a thief. We did just fine.

Sure some people will min max and want to be as efficient as possible.

Doesn’t make the most effective professions a trinity though.

Vayne.8563:

It’s not a trinity if it’s not required. People make up stuff because they’re used to it. But efficiency doesn’t equal requirement.

We ran a dungeon the other day with a mesmer, an engine, a ranger, a necro and a thief. We did just fine.

Sure some people will min max and want to be as efficient as possible.

Doesn’t make the most effective professions a trinity though.

While you still had professions which i took into consideration for Utility (Mesmer; Engineer), Support (Necromancer; Engineer) and Damage (Engineer and to a low extend Ranger, Thief).

The question I’m asking is, is it possible to clear a dungeon even half as efficent as a group consisting of for example 3 Thieves, an Engineer and a Elementalist , compared to a group of the, apparantly gloryfied, professions, 2 Guardians, 2 Warriors and a Mesmser?

The seceond question would be, “should it be possible for this ‘random’ group to be at least half as efficent as the ‘Trinity’ profession group, or is there a reason for them not to?”

Way to give a superficial look at classes OP.
I think you need to learn the classes a lot more before you go ahead making wrong reviews of them like this.

I prefer fun to efficiency so I guess I don’t understand the question.

I thought the trinity was Damage, Control, and Support, not that most groups know that, they just throw any combo of crap at anything and expect to win (lol… poor suckers)

Asum.4960:

Vayne.8563:

It’s not a trinity if it’s not required. People make up stuff because they’re used to it. But efficiency doesn’t equal requirement.

We ran a dungeon the other day with a mesmer, an engine, a ranger, a necro and a thief. We did just fine.

Sure some people will min max and want to be as efficient as possible.

Doesn’t make the most effective professions a trinity though.

While you still had professions which i took into consideration for Utility (Mesmer; Engineer), Support (Necromancer; Engineer) and Damage (Engineer and to a low extend Ranger, Thief).

The question I’m asking is, is it possible to clear a dungeon even half as efficent as a group consisting of for example 3 Thieves, an Engineer and a Elementalist , compared to a group of the, apparantly gloryfied, professions, 2 Guardians, 2 Warriors and a Mesmser?

The seceond question would be, “should it be possible for this ‘random’ group to be at least half as efficent as the ‘Trinity’ profession group, or is there a reason for them not to?”

I don’t think it matters.

No matter what professions there are in ANY game, there’ll always be a most efficient combination. ALways.

What makes the trinity the trinity is that it’s required. You need a tank, you need a healer. And those roles are filled by a very limited number of professions. They are required to complete content.

In Guild Wars 2, you can switch roles, even within the bounds of the same encounter, simply by swapping weapons.

Anyone can call anything a trinity but the trinity has a very specific definition. Saying Guild Wars 2 has a trinity because you can put professions into categories doesn’t really do much except show the human propensity to classify stuff.

they said themselves that there was a trinity in the game, i don’t see how people keep thinking they designed without its trinity in mind.

Synthetic Ian.9625:

they said themselves that there was a trinity in the game, i don’t see how people keep thinking they designed without its trinity in mind.

Did they say there was a trinity in game because they designed it to have one, or did they say it to appeal to people who can’t live without putting things in boxes.

A lot of times companies say and do things to sell their product. Like when Microsoft Word when from version 2 to version 6. Versions 3, 4 and 5 never existed. They simply realized that Word Prefect was up to version six and their version was lower, so they upped it.

It doesn’t make it the sixth version.

I don’t believe Anet had a trinity in mind when they designed this game. But I do believe they felt a lot of people would feel more comfortable if they thought that was the case.

Edit: Case in point, people run CoF path 1 with 4 zerker warriors and a zerk mesmer. Almost all Damage, no real support or healing at all.

well i cant find the blog post addressing this (it was deleted gg anet) but it would be nice to get some official input on the “official trinity” and if its still considered Damage, Control, and Support or not.

My lvl 2 Thief outputs more damage then that dead zerker warrior.

Synthetic Ian.9625:

they said themselves that there was a trinity in the game, i don’t see how people keep thinking they designed without its trinity in mind.

Thats why I’m so confused about the bash this Thread gets.

ArenaNet even named the Trinity in Guild Wars 2.
The only difference in my OP is that i see control as a branch of support, but Utility as own Trinity branch instead.
Until this little naming difference, it’s basically a Anet statement.

I wanted to bring up the topic if ArenaNet went to far with their “open Trinity”, ending up not so open after all.

I have completed dungeons and co. in games with “The Holy Trinity” sucessfully without tanks and/or healers, therefore it was not mandatory.
The difference was, it took much, much longer then with classes within the trinity.

A similar thing is happening in Guild Wars 2, where groups not consisting of Support (Control), Utility and Damage take way longer than Trinity groups, while, additionally some professions fit these Trinity roles way better than others, which indeed could be considered as problem.

But as it seems, fanboyism and the low education level of our time isn’t allowing for any kind of discussion anymore.

You bring up a theoretic subject for dispute, and instead of actually adressing the matter of subject, they bash you into the ground for daring to “criticise” the game.

How dare i to bring up and unveil a possible problem for the future of this beautiful game, possibly making it better in the long run.

It’s not like i made up what i wrote in the OP all by myself. It’s not even like it has to represent my own opinion.
I gathered the opinions and fears of the community and summarized them to open up a dispute about them.

Frogive me my evil actions.

I still believe Anet used the trinity to explain how combat works, not to say there’s a hard and fast trinity. It has to do with classification of roles, but the roles aren’t locked in. And that’s the difference.

In a trinity situation, you play a tank and someone else players a healer, but you can’t switch roles. The healer doesn’t become the tank. The tank is the tank, the healer is the healer. That’s what makes it a trinity.

Sure the devs used the word. They’re trying to communicate something new and different. They used words people knew and understood, but it’s not a direct correlation.

Because here, I could be the “tank” one minute and the DPS the next minute and support the next minute. It’s much more fluid, and that’s why it’s not really a trinity.

All the roles are hybrids. There’s a sliding scale. I can’t think of any profession that doesn’t do damage, even though they’re doing other things as well. Is that really a trinity?

Bring back tanking, having a shield in PvE is pretty worthless.
Bring back healing roles – so that tanking can be possible.

Having a focus in off-hand as guardian is far better than shield in off-hand.
Every class can fulfill all 3? yah right… Have you seen the aggro mechanics? also lack of support/healing skills for some classes.
Sorry but if you’re not dps as a warrior you’re either bored with pure dps or playing it wrong. Warrior is top dps & that’s the best thing you can bring to a group. If you’re not supporting your team with useful boons & blowing “Save Yourselves!” every time it’s off CD to “burst” as guardian.. you should either be doing pvp or you’re playing it wrong… play a warrior if you want heavy armor dps.

Best utilities – Mesmer, Best support – Guardian Best dps – warrior.

OP is 100% correct, don’t kid yourself. At least if we had a real trinity people would have a defined place & sense of being wanted. Basically any class can replace another class, nobody has any responsibility in the game, you could be wearing Lv.60 gear at lv.80, you can tunnel vision as much as you want since it’s basically all about your own survival – few play on teamwork – stop kidding yourselves that trinity roles like tank & healer aren’t important.

Mujen.2089:

Bring back tanking, having a shield in PvE is pretty worthless.
Bring back healing roles – so that tanking can be possible.

Having a focus in off-hand as guardian is far better than shield in off-hand.
Every class can fulfill all 3? yah right… Have you seen the aggro mechanics? also lack of support/healing skills for some classes.
Sorry but if you’re not dps as a warrior you’re either bored with pure dps or playing it wrong. Warrior is top dps & that’s the best thing you can bring to a group. If you’re not supporting your team with useful boons & blowing “Save Yourselves!” every time it’s off CD to “burst” as guardian.. you should either be doing pvp or you’re playing it wrong… play a warrior if you want heavy armor dps.

Best utilities – Mesmer, Best support – Guardian Best dps – warrior.

OP is 100% correct, don’t kid yourself. At least if we had a real trinity people would have a defined place & sense of being wanted. Basically any class can replace another class, nobody has any responsibility in the game, you could be wearing Lv.60 gear at lv.80, you can tunnel vision as much as you want since it’s basically all about your own survival – few play on teamwork – stop kidding yourselves that trinity roles like tank & healer aren’t important.

You’re probably playing a different game than the rest of us. Some people play to have fun. Guild Wars 2 was designed for this.

If you’re telling people they’re playing it wrong…you’re playing it wrong.

Vayne.8563:

Mujen.2089:

Bring back tanking, having a shield in PvE is pretty worthless.
Bring back healing roles – so that tanking can be possible.

Having a focus in off-hand as guardian is far better than shield in off-hand.
Every class can fulfill all 3? yah right… Have you seen the aggro mechanics? also lack of support/healing skills for some classes.
Sorry but if you’re not dps as a warrior you’re either bored with pure dps or playing it wrong. Warrior is top dps & that’s the best thing you can bring to a group. If you’re not supporting your team with useful boons & blowing “Save Yourselves!” every time it’s off CD to “burst” as guardian.. you should either be doing pvp or you’re playing it wrong… play a warrior if you want heavy armor dps.

Best utilities – Mesmer, Best support – Guardian Best dps – warrior.

OP is 100% correct, don’t kid yourself. At least if we had a real trinity people would have a defined place & sense of being wanted. Basically any class can replace another class, nobody has any responsibility in the game, you could be wearing Lv.60 gear at lv.80, you can tunnel vision as much as you want since it’s basically all about your own survival – few play on teamwork – stop kidding yourselves that trinity roles like tank & healer aren’t important.

You’re probably playing a different game than the rest of us. Some people play to have fun. Guild Wars 2 was designed for this.

If you’re telling people they’re playing it wrong…you’re playing it wrong.

Fencers is that you?

Kakeru.2873:

Fencers is that you?

Nope. I’m me. lol

Damage, control, and support are a “trinity” insofar as they’re the general aspects of combat that people can decide to specialize/spread themselves out around—I don;t think anybody could say that they can’t see where people have a place planting damage, buffing/healing their party, or controlling enemy behavior. Some classes are much better at some roles than others, but in theory (theory) every class can at least partially fill ever role, even if it’s just an aside to their main focus. The trinity GW2 removed was the one that certain classes are limited to filling specific roles, which is what most people refer to.

And it also doesn’t mean you need every aspect of combat for a fight either—such as the 4W/1M Cof speedruns, or that most people will just sans control for most fights than try to break through Defiant (and it’s useless on some enemies like Abominations with their unstoppable).

The Guardian and Warrior are the best of the best for their roles if they max out into it, and Mesmer has the most diverse group utility (but more importantly has Portal—we’ll see how important they stay when that ability gets spread to some other classes), but their necessity over other classes really isn’t anything more than shaving 3-5 minutes off a dungeon run, and if you’re not optimizing to speedrun then prioritizing these “tiers” really isn’t important at all. So, in the game as a whole I wouldn’t consider them GW2’s class trinity—I would consider them the most optimum set-up for a very specific intent in a specific area of the game.

The problem came in that all classes were created to have equal damage and abilities. Unfortunately, not all classes were given the same armour and hit points.

The upshot of this is that the elementalist is a poor man’s guardian.

Likewise, the warrior, for having all its survivability and a surprising range of group friendly benefits….pays no real price for this and also has impressive damage.

All the unfavoured classes, like the elementalist, ended up changing themselves into daft specs like dagger dagger in order to serve a purpose. Did arenanet really intend the ranged caster class to occupy the same role as the thief?

I`m a staff elementalist and if I don’t see some significant buffs in the coming patch, I`ll be rolling something else as dagger/ dagger does not appeal to me. I have the worst hit points and armour of all classes and got nothing in return.

The way I see it, trinity in the traditional mmo sense is like specific roles where you put all into one category. But in guild wars 2, all builds need at least 2 to be good, and most builds use a decent mixture of all 3. So yes, you describe 3 big aspects to combat, but you don’t have each member of a party handing one and only one role. Instead they have to be flexible and handle all of them to an extent, except for bunkers, which forgo all damage, but that only works in control point pvp.

As for personal preference in viewing this, I consider control it’s own category and utility under support, or maybe just 4 categories (but then it wouldn’t be a beloved trinity :p)

I will give you a better list that’s actually 100% accurate.

PvE-Tier: Warrior, Guardian
Not-PvE-Tier: Everything else

Theres a reason this game is called Guardian Warriors 2.

It’s impossible to avoid combat roles as they are part of being human. I mean, look at any human group organized around an objective and the first thing they do once they are clear on the objective is decide who does what.

I was watching a youtube video of a very good dungeon group talk about the team composition. The warriors were berserker, of course, but they referred to the guardian as an ‘anchor’ build. Very high toughness and control-oriented. It was his role to run in and grab aggro and position the mobs for the warriors to burst down. Anchor? Can anyone spell T-A-N-K?

But, we must avoid the trinity, so the guardian is an ‘anchor’ guardian. Roles are a part of being human so we will have them. What we call them and exactly how they function is up for grabs.

Navzar.2938:

The way I see it, trinity in the traditional mmo sense is like specific roles where you put all into one category. But in guild wars 2, all builds need at least 2 to be good, and most builds use a decent mixture of all 3. So yes, you describe 3 big aspects to combat, but you don’t have each member of a party handing one and only one role. Instead they have to be flexible and handle all of them to an extent, except for bunkers, which forgo all damage, but that only works in control point pvp.

As for personal preference in viewing this, I consider control it’s own category and utility under support, or maybe just 4 categories (but then it wouldn’t be a beloved trinity :p)

More distinct roles yes, but doesn’t mean you are locked into them with traits & variety of gear. It creates viable builds & identifiable party setups. Currently there is no real party setup except wanting mesmer and warrior just for dps & time warp. You don’t invite any of the other classes for specific setups, guardian for support but you never hear someone say, "okay we need (non guard/mes/war class) for our group so we can do this.. occasionally thief for invis but.. we have items for that and mesmer can mass invis also… so.. idk. Most encounters are DPS based as majority of builds are setup around dps. Being support for most classes is seen as a kitten state of play.

Raine.1394:

It’s impossible to avoid combat roles as they are part of being human. I mean, look at any human group organized around an objective and the first thing they do once they are clear on the objective is decide who does what.

I was watching a youtube video of a very good dungeon group talk about the team composition. The warriors were berserker, of course, but they referred to the guardian as an ‘anchor’ build. Very high toughness and control-oriented. It was his role to run in and grab aggro and position the mobs for the warriors to burst down. Anchor? Can anyone spell T-A-N-K?

But, we must avoid the trinity, so the guardian is an ‘anchor’ guardian. Roles are a part of being human so we will have them. What we call them and exactly how they function is up for grabs.

That’s only due to aggro mechanics, there is no realiable tanking in GW2.. but because lower hp & higher toughness grants more aggro, it works out that way. Also having a shield provides less benefit than say a guardian with a focus (blind/regen + 3 blocks on lower CD) I usually end up as “tank” anchor w/e u wanna call it because I have 3k+ toughness and 16k HP. Not by design, im actually mostly cleric gear lol aka wannabe healer.

Mujen.2089:

Raine.1394:

It’s impossible to avoid combat roles as they are part of being human. I mean, look at any human group organized around an objective and the first thing they do once they are clear on the objective is decide who does what.

I was watching a youtube video of a very good dungeon group talk about the team composition. The warriors were berserker, of course, but they referred to the guardian as an ‘anchor’ build. Very high toughness and control-oriented. It was his role to run in and grab aggro and position the mobs for the warriors to burst down. Anchor? Can anyone spell T-A-N-K?

But, we must avoid the trinity, so the guardian is an ‘anchor’ guardian. Roles are a part of being human so we will have them. What we call them and exactly how they function is up for grabs.

That’s only due to aggro mechanics, there is no realiable tanking in GW2.. but because lower hp & higher toughness grants more aggro, it works out that way. Also having a shield provides less benefit than say a guardian with a focus (blind/regen + 3 blocks on lower CD) I usually end up as “tank” anchor w/e u wanna call it because I have 3k+ toughness and 16k HP. Not by design, im actually mostly cleric gear lol aka wannabe healer.

Yes, it’s purely due to aggro mechanics. The guardian’s build serves as an effective ‘taunt’. So, you see the anchor guardian managing aggro as a ‘tank’ would, albeit without a keybound taunt. You are correct that there is no ‘reliable’ tanking overall.

Thieves seemed a good choice in fractals so i wouldn’t call that a bottom tier class. They have solid dps and can cheese some parts of fractals with stealth. They also have a projectile block and stealth rez.

For me the worst classes are ranger and necro. Neither has projectile manipulation/useful utility or good damage.

having played 2 guardians to 80 and a warrior to 80, I can say that there is a pseudo trinity working as the current meta. I have abandoned the warrior after 300 hours of play because I find the way I play as a warrior to be static and one-dimensional(my fault).

however, on both my guardians, I can achieve drastically different styles of play. aside from the fact that I always seem to draw aggro, my main guardian performs as control primarily, but very often I’m also dpsing(second to warrior usually) because I traited properly to allow 15-20 stacks of might to propagate within seconds, often out-dpsing a warrior who has expired all stacks of might.

my second guardian runs pure support with moderate to high dps depending on the party comp(boon dispensers). I can’t ‘tank’ as well as my main but I offer up much more support than my ‘selfish’ main guardian.

I love both and participate in pve and wvw regularly. I don’t see a( lack of a better term) WoW trinity, but something more fluid in which roles change dynamically mid-combat(downed state comes to mind- genius, really), which I think was anet’s intent. it works for me as a hard trinity is quite boring to play within.

@OP:

YOU ARE WRONG

Yesterday my guild and a single pug did a 5-man, level 10 Fractal with 4 Elementalists and 1 Ranger.

That voids your theory, congratulations on being wrong.

There is no trinity.

I must add that I pug 100% of all content including dungeons and fractals(30+) and I welcome any and all classes simply because I enjoy the content and often do not play for efficiency’s sake

Siphaed.9235:

@OP:

YOU ARE WRONG

Yesterday my guild and a single pug did a 5-man, level 10 Fractal with 4 Elementalists and 1 Ranger.

That voids your theory, congratulations on being wrong.

There is no trinity.

Asum.4960:

This is not representative of my opinion of the game and mere a potential subject of discussion.)

You’re welcome.

(and no, it actually doesn’t, but thanks for reading)

kiba.2768:

having played 2 guardians to 80 and a warrior to 80, I can say that there is a pseudo trinity working as the current meta. I have abandoned the warrior after 300 hours of play because I find the way I play as a warrior to be static and one-dimensional(my fault).

however, on both my guardians, I can achieve drastically different styles of play. aside from the fact that I always seem to draw aggro, my main guardian performs as control primarily, but very often I’m also dpsing(second to warrior usually) because I traited properly to allow 15-20 stacks of might to propagate within seconds, often out-dpsing a warrior who has expired all stacks of might.

my second guardian runs pure support with moderate to high dps depending on the party comp(boon dispensers). I can’t ‘tank’ as well as my main but I offer up much more support than my ‘selfish’ main guardian.

I love both and participate in pve and wvw regularly. I don’t see a( lack of a better term) WoW trinity, but something more fluid in which roles change dynamically mid-combat(downed state comes to mind- genius, really), which I think was anet’s intent. it works for me as a hard trinity is quite boring to play within.

A guardian that can out dps warrior? I haven’t seen that yet, how is this possible?

it makes me lol when a ranger wants to do a dungeon

like what are you gonna do other than get downed and attempt to kite

The basis of the problem is that GW2 gathers 3 types of content which are PvE / WvW / sPvP.

There will ALWAYS be an optimal way to do things. PvE content which is designed to be played with a 5 players group is more inclined to that (WvW is more about having lot of people while PvP, well, is pvp). You can’t help it.

The current solution is to reduce difficulty of dungeons so everyone is able to finish them. Sad but true.

Dr Ritter.1327:

it makes me lol when a ranger wants to do a dungeon

like what are you gonna do other than get downed and attempt to kite

You’ve never done a dungeon with my ranger then. My Pets do a significant amount of aggro soak.

My ranger also provides a good amount of support utility with a pulsing condition cleanse and protection via a well placed spirit (key is placement). I also provide a ton of AoE healing via elite spirit and can single handly rescue a close party wipe via same spirit.

I can keep semi permanent fury up via horn and healing (runes).

And since I am tanky as hell, no my ranger is usually the last to go down if we screwed it up.

And My pets do pretty decent dps.

You simply haven’t run dungeons with decent rangers.

I could say the same about the LOL zerker warriors dropping seconds into a fight, but I also know that a warrior played well is a huge benefit.

Dr Ritter.1327:

it makes me lol when a ranger wants to do a dungeon

like what are you gonna do other than get downed and attempt to kite

This is ignorant.

Don’t believe it, you’re in denial, this is true all around. Good post OP. Now the rest of you in denial do yourself a favor and go level up a warr/guard/mes.

Wanted to add, I never am picky about the professions I run with, except for maybe cof, and high leve fractals needs a guard. When I get a group of warr/mes/guard I get excited for a good smooth run.

I have to agree with the OP in this one. Most of the people who are disagreeing have not played the other professions thoroughly.

I have 5 level 80s, and leveling 2 more. My 80s are: Ele, Mes, War, Guard and Necro.

I have tried pure DPS and pure support for all these characters. Here are the results on these 5 ONLY (thief, and engineer undergoing evaluation).

Best DPS (power/condition):
1. Warrior, A+++
2. Guardian, A- (roll a 30+ crit chance, 90% crit damage one and see how stupid OP it is WHILE providing support. GS skill 2 can do over 12k damage easy)
3. Mesmer, B+
4. Elementalist, B-
5. Necromancer, C+

Best Heals:
1. Guardian, A+
2. Warrior, A-
3. Elementalist, A-
4. Necromancer, A-
5. Mesmer, B-

Highest non-heal support (condition removal, damage boost, etc):
1. Mesmer, A+++ (fields, feedback, portals, time warp)
2. Guardian, A+ (condition removal, blocking, stability, reflects)
3. Warrior, A- (shout heals, stat boosts)
4. Elementalist, B-
5. Necromancer, C-

DaisyRogers.6837:

Dr Ritter.1327:

it makes me lol when a ranger wants to do a dungeon

like what are you gonna do other than get downed and attempt to kite

You’ve never done a dungeon with my ranger then. My Pets do a significant amount of aggro soak.

My ranger also provides a good amount of support utility with a pulsing condition cleanse and protection via a well placed spirit (key is placement). I also provide a ton of AoE healing via elite spirit and can single handly rescue a close party wipe via same spirit.

I can keep semi permanent fury up via horn and healing (runes).

And since I am tanky as hell, no my ranger is usually the last to go down if we screwed it up.

And My pets do pretty decent dps.

You simply haven’t run dungeons with decent rangers.

I could say the same about the LOL zerker warriors dropping seconds into a fight, but I also know that a warrior played well is a huge benefit.

still no reason to choose a ranger over a guard

GW2’s trinity is bugged.

Since I got bored of rolling damage dealing some time today, I’ve decided to go full support on guild missions. It was Southsun Crab Toss guild challenge. (Fend off attacking karka and keep Fraloo’s crab alive inside the circle)

So, I was running along crab carrier providing him with swiftness, protection, aegis, virtue of resolve passive effect, stability, regeneration, healing, shield, while also helping others with might, virtue of justice active effect, line of warding, light combo field and healing. But i wasn’t attacking anything.

So, after successfully completed mission, i got … nothing. I haven’t completed it. Support isn’t rewarded.

I also like to roll hammer warrior and do crowd control. But since most of bosses have very high number of can’t touch me boons on them, CC is useless in boss fights. It’s not like it’s effect is decreased, or there is a chance you might miss that. No. You can’t touch them while they have at least 1 stack.

It makes me sad.

10 month old thread?

10 months old but still relevant…

a golden oldie

Rhyse.8179:

10 month old thread?

Ye, 10 months and still no fix…