Guild Wars 2

Which class is the best at dealing direct damage? I want to say it’s either warrior or a signet/beastmaster ranger. Or maybe an elementalist. But I just want 1 Pve char that does a bunch of direct damage, because why not?

I say D/D Thief.

I’m going to say S/W ranger. Not because it’s true, I’d just like the ranger to be on top in a discussion somewhere.

i’ve been really into ranger lately. and which pets do the most damage? Cats, or birds?

This also depends on if we are speaking of single target or AoE.

mostly single target damage

Thief IS the highest single target damage no doubt, second is either mesmer or ele. followed by warrior.

PFT, warrior GS or Axe hits hard, is durable and can sustain fury and might. Thief can probably spike harder, but war is way more durable and has sustained out put.

warrior axe has the highest sustained dmg output

No, we thieves can keep up solid direct damage with C&D —> BS --→ AA chain —>Repeat, but yes warriors are more tanky while they are better at selfbuffing but thats why you got 1 warrior with firefield, and 2 thieves with cluster spam.

Warrior axe do NOT go past thief single target damage.

Big Tower, would you mind explaining the acronyms in “C&D → BS → AA” for me? Thanks.

Qaelyn.7612:

Big Tower, would you mind explaining the acronyms in “C&D -> BS -> AA” for me? Thanks.

Cloak & Dagger (#5), Back Stab (#1 in stealth), Auto attack until revealed is off.

Very good dmg but has position requirements while some other classes have steadier damage because of no position requirement.

Thanks. I’m currently leveling with D/D and SB and haven’t had much experience with backstabbing yet.

Big Tower.5423:

Thief IS the highest single target damage no doubt, second is either mesmer or ele. followed by GUARDIAN, then Warrior.

Fixed it for you

Guardian?! What the kitten? Where the heck did you get that from?! Guardian is 4th on lowest direct damage, only higher than ranger, engi and necro… XD

Qaelyn.7612:

Thanks. I’m currently leveling with D/D and SB and haven’t had much experience with backstabbing yet.

Id get infusions of shadows (Shadowarts adept trait) To keep up a steadly chain of what i told you. Just a quick note is that you’re prolly the most sqishy guy in the world aside from bad eles. :P i remeber circa level 70 i got oneshotted by a random risen mob over and over :P so watch out for that but its rewarding in the end though due to high damage, i soloed eye of zhaitan at 5 minutes with masterwork gear

Warrior because of banners. Banners are around 30% more party wide damage. However, in a warrior party thief does the most damage. So thief is a good choice if your team already has a warrior or two.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Warrior because of banners. Banners are around 30% more party wide damage. However, in a warrior party thief does the most damage. So thieves are good choices if your team already has a warrior or two.

Thats support dude, not damage.

Thanks Big Tower. I’m sticking with a condition/mobility build for leveling, so far so good, and will reassess at 40 and at 60.

defintly full signet ranger

Big Tower.5423:

Master of Timespace.2548:

Warrior because of banners. Banners are around 30% more party wide damage. However, in a warrior party thief does the most damage. So thieves are good choices if your team already has a warrior or two.

Thats support dude, not damage.

Dude, I call it damage if it makes the red bar of bosses turn black faster.

Mesmer is kinda iffy. It hits hard if you can keep 3 phantasm w/o downtime. I find that not easy.

If this is just for pve then be careful what you wish for. Most classes can do good burst damage if played well and hard enough. A well played engineer or mesmer can have some fairly obscene burst damage, but that doesn’t mean you’d want to ever use one for pve farming. If you want sustainable high dps without needing to press 50 keys a minute then warrior is easily the best choice imo.

Big Tower.5423:

Guardian?! What the kitten? Where the heck did you get that from?! Guardian is 4th on lowest direct damage, only higher than ranger, engi and necro… XD

^ never used Sword/Focus with proper traits. :P

Zerker rifle engineer can keep almost a constant 17-25 stacks of might on himself and hit very hard with rifle, surprise shot, static discharge, very often.

i already have an 80 warrior, so thats out of the way, my other lower classes are ranger (40-ish) guardian (20-30ish) and elem(40-50ish) and Im thinking of going for a signet build. It’s too early for me to tell what exactly I want to run with my guard, and for my elem, maybe I should just go zerker d/d when i get to that point, or just end up face rolling some random build thru Pve.

Self buffed, Warrior
Fully buffed, Guardian
Burst damage, Thief

thief, elementalist, (highly situational and not applicable in most situations) mesmer have really strong damage.

ele also provides FGS. LH ele gives great support with might (and if traited fury) and AOE blinds. thieves are kind of a leech class but stealth is great utility in many dungeons.

CMstorm.8679:

i’ve been really into ranger lately. and which pets do the most damage? Cats, or birds?

Cats.

But pet dps is highly situational.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Agility-Training-Better-than-it-seems/first

In terms of dps:
Stationary target
Cat>Dog>Bird

Moving target
Dog>Bird>Cat

Moving target (pet has agility training)
Cat>Dog>Bird

Single target damage goes to thief definitly. If it’s a longer boss fight mesmer is next. Otherwise I guess ranger.