Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone. I can’t decide which class to pick to replace my necromancer which I am playing since 2012. I really like to play necro but it’s not wanted in current pve content. Imagine the fingers pointing at you after joining Arah dungeon..

I have tried and leveled 2 characters which are elementalist and ranger but nothing stuck. The main problems I have win the other classes are:

- Ele – It’s overrated, it’s overhyped. I do not like to play classes like that. Something less mainstream lol.

-Rango – Even less wanted than a necro. Kinda boring. Do I have to say more?

-Warrior- Same as Ele. I also never plays typical “warrior/knight” classes. I just don’t like this idea.

-Guardian- Same as Ele and Warrior. Maybe I just don’t like metasheeps?

And then we have Thief, Engi and Mesmer. What is good both in pve and pvp content? What’s the current state of these 3 classes? Help me to decide what should I put my free time on.

Mesmer:
PvE: In some dungeons wanted for stealth skip & portals. Suffers from low group-support, especially because of the lack of unique buffs. Also suffers from low dps. In itself a fun class with engaging combat mechanics, bad for LW farming, since it lacks frequent AoE’s.
PvP: Some builds are currently overpowered, usually making them the winner of 1v1’s, portals are very useful for team-rotation, Vertical teleports allow for very high mobility.
Decent AoE-condi clears & boon-sharing, if traited for it. One of their elites (long cd / long cast-time) also allows for long-duration group-stealth in a huge range.
Worth noting is also their incredible utility in WvW, coming from AoE-cap-less, medium-duration group-stealth (veil) & portals. Basically they can stealth & portal whole zergs.

Thief:
PvE: Solid spot in the meta for stealth-skips and very high single-target dps. Needs backup from a decent group, else their low healthpool will bring you into DS very often, therefore bad for pug-runs. Okayish for LW farming, since bow allows frequent AOE’s on acceptable range. Very fast & mobile class, able to traverse maps quickly.
PvP: Kinda out of the meta, replaced by the currently more effective mesmers. Still a very strong dueling class, able to constantly harass under-protected points, putting up decent pressure on the enemy in terms of rotation. Vertical teleports allow very high mobility. Playing them can be stressful, since they don’t forgive mistakes and can end up in downstate fast, if the enemy manages to either mess with their stealth, or catch them with immobilizes. Low condi-clears. They bring shadow-house (which can be a death-trap for the ones inside, if used in the wrong moment) and a abundance of short duration personal stealth. If traited, they can stealth the target they want to rezz, giving them a limited supporter role. Venom-share is not meta, but a working niche role as well. Very teleport heavy-gameplay, rewarding proper positioning. A abundance of leaps & evandes helps with that.

Engineer:
PvE: never was in the meta, but always was a welcomed guest in pug-groups. Brings decent team-support, 3rd highest dps (pre-patch, no idea about the current ranking), high personal survivability and decent mobility. Nades allow them to hit up to 15 targets at the same time, giving them advantages in clearing adds & trash. Depending on slight adjustments between combat, engineers can perform stealth-skips for the group, heal & protect allies, stack vulnerability, bring the highest relfect-uptime (wonky to use, but very effective if performed decently) and are a good class to solo dungeons on. They are one of the easiest-to- play classes for open world farming, due to high mobility, survivability and a abundance of AoE-dmg on up to 1.5k range.
PvP: Previously had a solid spot in the meta, but are currently limited to nade-spamming, and rampage/Lich-counters. They still have 1v1 capabilities, but since the trait-changes they rather lean towards a group-supporter, not meant to engage in 1v1’s. Still they have many viable niche-builds and are overall a fun & engaging class to play. Again, being the jack of all traits they bring limited group-condi-clears, limited group-healing, group stealth, and limited group-buffing. Depending on how one traits, they can specialize themselves in either of these support roles. Worth noting is also their frequent accessible safe-stomps & save-rezzes.

Hope that helps.

try mesmer or engie if you like to avoid the min/max meta.

Im not sure why mesmers get this rep, but mine does more damage than any of my other classes. (I have them all). yeah, my warrior can do some high, sustained damage while my thief can stealth a group for a short while, but my mesmer can do both of these things slightly better while still punching out good condi pressure and can spike 15k’s all at once.

Engineer with mortar kit and gadgets are amazing now. They are uncommon and always a welcome addition to a group.

Eles are overrated? no way! run a dungeon with a group of eles who know what they are doing, it will be the fastest run of your life.

Out of the few you haven’d discarded, the engie is my pick. I find mesmer boring, and i don’t have a thief. So you are left with the master of all trades, the engineer! leveling is also fun since you have perma swiftness.

Settled. I’m gonna start leveling an engi. Thanks!