Guild Wars 2

Sylv.5324:

Nayru.4537:

Sylv.5324:

Agenteusa.6380:

Well we aren’t talking about player skill, we’re talking about class potential.

And that is why my advice to the OP is to play the class he clicks with, because a player who really gets a class will always find a way to excel and be of benefit to his group.

And yet you will still be playing an ineffective profession

I have never heard complaints about my performance DURING and AFTER a dungeon, though I’ve heard silly folks like you say my class is useless BEFORE one.

I’ve never seen anybody type in a dungeon period. So I think that goes without saying.

Agenteusa.6380:

Full party with guards/warrs can rule evry single dungeon as no other party can imo.

Let’s just call all professions besides War and Guard useless in PvE then.

Isslair.4908:

Agenteusa.6380:

Full party with guards/warrs can rule evry single dungeon as no other party can imo.

Let’s just call all professions besides War and Guard useless in PvE then.

These folks must be real fun to do PvE with.

Sylv.5324:

These folks must be real fun to do PvE with.

Yeah!

Okay, having played all 8 classes to level 80…

There is no way to claim one class is only about one particular way to play. I can build really strong DPS necros. I can build ubertank necros. I can build a pretty solid support necro. That said, I’ll try to give ya some ideas and put them in a kinda ranking from worst to best.

8) Engineer. There is just no way to get around the fact that a class that doesn’t excel at anything is the worst. They can sorta tank with a pistol/shield build except they don’t have enough tricks to hold aggro and keep themselves alive while doing it. They can sorta DPS with grenades except that grenades have been nerfed so far down as to make them one of the most mediocre AoE attacks in the game (but oh, hey, you get sigils now &eyeroll&) They can sorta support with the elixir gun and healing turret and/or kit, but guardians are much better at boons and elementalists are much better at healing.

7) Necromancer. This class is ranked this low not because they’re bad, but because they’re broken. Minions flat out don’t work with anything resembling reliability. As that’s one of the unique mechanics of the class, that’s a pretty big thing to have broken. That said, necros can tank like champs. You can build a toon that effectively has three health bars to work with, self heals constantly, and can provide combo fields for teammates. Necros can also provide solid condition damage via posion and bleeding which they have to problem at all stacking.

6) Thief. At this point, the rankings are getting way into the but…but…but… part. Thieves are the masters of trashing other players in 1v1 and most mobs veteran and below. The problem is that anything that can survive the burst is a huge problem for a thief. Now, you can build a condition thief that is much more capable of winning fights against tougher enemies, but playing a condition thief is likely one of the trickiest endeavors in the game. You can’t really take much damage so you’re dependent on your own use of dodging and stealth to survive and every fight becomes about attrition so those skills will be put to constant use.

5) Mesmer. Seriously, ranks 3-6 are more a muddle mass than really one class all that much better than the others. A sword-pistol clone spam mesmer can tank like you wouldn’t believe by keeping clones in the face of their target for an entire fight. Those clones also stack vulnerability so hey, bonus. A phantasm DPS mesmer can spit out a lot of damage as can a mindwrack shatterer. Lots of options here, and the mesmer is pretty good at all of them.

4) Ranger. My personal fav w/ caveats. The biggest caveat is that ranger melee pets have accuracy ‘issues’. The pets have some cool big attacks but those attacks often get fired off at enemies that are out of position for them to work on. Even with that, the pet’s ability to tank while the ranger kites makes this the most solo friendly class out there. Rangers also have an awesome heal ability in Healing Spring which makes them useful to hang out around in WvW or dungeons.

3) Guardian. The kings of tanking GW2 style which means boon/heal spam rather than raw stats. Guardians also make decent enough DPS toons albeit not up to ranger/thief/warrior levels.

2) Warrior. This is likely the closest thing to a completed class in the game. No major power breaking bugs. Lots of room to move around on the DPS-tank continuum. Can fight nearly as well at range as they do at melee. They can even be made to have some solid benefit as support toons.

1) Elementalist. Before the big arcane dodging I win nerf, this class was leaps and bounds better than everything else. Post-nerf, they’re just simply better. No other class can build in as strong a mix of survival and damage in one package. No other class, not even the engineer, has as much flexibility, nor can they make such signficant changes on the fly. Need to heal? Flip to water. Need to boost durability while waiting on cooldowns. Flip to earth. Want to rain down fire on your enemies hiding atop walls. Flip to fire. Want to really, really show off what this class can do? Go dagger/dagger and start changing elements every few seconds creating a ball of non-stop big hits and damage absorption .

PvE Dung – Doesn’t matter to me much, just don’t be a baddie and we’ll finish it with no problems.

PvE Farming – War, Guard, everything else, mesmer

PvP – (imho)

Ele (over Guard due to Ele having by far the best downed state in the game)
Guard
Thief (due to being able to seriously abuse in game bugs… after that’s fixed I would drop them way down)
War/Necro/Ranger
Eng
Mesmer

I can’t believe I saw some one rank Mesmer #1 for PvP… >.<

It’s the only class that has multi-hitting/aoe attacks that can be stopped by a single dodge/blind/block (I only call illusions attacks as the dev’s have deemed them to be so). Those attacks also fuel their class f-keys. The result is that a mesmer is very easy for a good player to completely shut down. They are the most punishing class vs. people that don’t understand the mechanics behind the class though… you know… those people that can’t tell which are the clones (lol)

I see a lot of folks ranking Ranger low.

Which confuses me because I do just fine as a ranger, in fact I’ve saved my dungeon party from certain doom in a couple of situations.

Maybe you all just haven’t had much experience with a ranger that knows what they’re doing?

Agenteusa.6380:

O.o What attitude?

I like mesmers but we have to be real about it. Full party with guards/warrs can rule evry single dungeon as no other party can imo. And it saddens me but I found this to be quite accurate.

I ran AC path 3 the other day with 3 warriors and 2 guardians (me being lvl 80 guardian) and we ran it flawless. easiest dungeon run I’ve ever had. very accurate.

This is certainly not a list of “Best to Worst”. I don’t think it’s really possible to make a list like that in this game. There are classes that are worse at certain things than other classes, but to say some are just bad is not really fair.

My faovrite classes in order however ?

Necromancer
Guardian
Warrior
Mesmer
Engineer
Elementalist
Thief
Ranger

Why Necromancer at #1 ? It’s alittle buggy sure, but has a HUGE impact on WvW, I really dig the play style swapping between Staff and Scepter, and all around I really like the theme.

Why Ranger at #8 ? I hate pets, I can spec my Necro to not use any. The ranger however always has a pet, and I hate them.

Ele (that’s all i really play) – I play this constantly and am hard as heck to take down in any situation. Typically last standing in dungeons even as melee with my d/d. I can solo stack myself 20+ stacks of might with my current build. Tis necessary for my damage though I am not as good of an escape artist as a thief, but if i can tank the bosses in dungeons it doesn’t matter.

As for pvp the hardest classes for me to counter are
1. p/d thief. Its ridiculous fighting one. At the end we end up just staring at each other.
2. Mesmer – With stealth/portals/clones/illusions it gets chaotic.
3. d/d thief – How often they can stealth and with culling issues makes them great at avoiding my my burst damage.
4. Ele – another good d/d ele is a very hard targer to take down but doable since i play ele so much. I haven’t had a staff ele kill me yet 1v1.
5. Necromancer – if my condi removal skills are on CD they are deadly to me.
6. Ranger – a good one can set traps on me and keep me controlled while being at a distance and gettin me good.
6. Engi – I haven’t fought a lot or played the class at all so countering them is a mystery to me.
7. Warrior – If i avoid their hundred blades i typically win without much issue.
8. guardian – Haven’t had one not run from me when it’s just me and them.

This is just a best to worst list against my ele. Based on personal experience so far. Things can always change.

Xavori.3768:

Okay, having played all 8 classes to level 80…

8) Engineer. There is just no way to get around the fact that a class that doesn’t excel at anything is the worst. They can sorta tank with a pistol/shield build except they don’t have enough tricks to hold aggro and keep themselves alive while doing it. They can sorta DPS with grenades except that grenades have been nerfed so far down as to make them one of the most mediocre AoE attacks in the game (but oh, hey, you get sigils now &eyeroll&) They can sorta support with the elixir gun and healing turret and/or kit, but guardians are much better at boons and elementalists are much better at healing.

Have you even tried a crit heavy rifle chain lightning spec? It’s a pure dps spec that does it very well. You have great sustained dps, godly burst, that also deals nice AoE damage.

Know where to place yourself and your wrench along with rifles passive pierce will rack up nice AoE numbers. Add SD on that and you have a killing machine going. If you arent completely handicapped you will also have jump shot followed by blunderbuss followed by a dodge. Jump shot if used right will crit for 13k, the attack is also AoE, add a well aimed blunder on that which can crits for 7k or more then finish off with a minor bomb on the dodge. You already unloaded SD with your toolbelt skills and gotten off some rifle shots, that 3k crits on SD and 2k on rifle shots. 1 wrench crit is around 3.5k, and if you place yourself right and the next one crits its another 3.5k. This is very probable with the right gear setup to go with your skills.

In WvW its even more fun, because you blow up a player in a few sec.

Sure there is no real passive survivability with the spec, so you rely on your dodge. But dont tell me that engineers dont have the option to specialize. And you always have TK#4 when you need it, both in PvE and PvP, its the best block in the game.

@Mesmer discussion: Please stop saying mesmers are bad at anything, PvE or PvP. Its only because you arent good with them. They are great at whatever they do if you know what you are doing.

Engineer & Necromancer are definitely the worst. The rest are pretty good I think.

Ranking based off my own experience;

PvE

1. Ranger
2. Necro
3. Guardian
4. Warrior
5. Engineer
6. Mesmer
7. Thief
8. Elementalist

WvW

1. Thief
2. Elementalist
3. Warrior
4. Mesmer
5. Guardian
6. Ranger
7. Necro
8. Engineer

Necro being my first 80 character is where my heart is at, but i’m dissapointed that so many things are not being fixed (like, basic bugs – not even balance issues).

Necro might have a lot of hit points, but the damage output is laughable compared with other classes (condition removal ftw). There is no viable burst damage build. Minions are broken, Axe (burst?) does pitiful damage. Many of the traits are broken – that being said, this class excels at PvE, but is not quite on par with the Ranger.

Playing my 80 Mesmer (in WvW) is like being on easy mode compared with the 80 Necro. Even my 80 Ranger is more effective.

@SneakyErvin

I’ve tried lots of engy builds. The bugzapper build is fun, but thieves, warriors, and elementalists can all blow it out of the water in terms of burst and sustained DPS. Thieves then get the advantage of stealth if something goes wrong. Ele’s can run and heal. Warriors can go invuln. A DPS engy that has a target survive its burst is just a target.

More than that, you don’t have any other real options for a good DPS build. Elementalists can go staff and ranged AoE awesomeness or daggers and just all around awesomeness. Warriors can work with any of their weapons. Thieves can be burst or condition, and can reach a point on condition/stealth where fighting them 1v1 is an exercise in slow, certain death (except for elementalists, necros, and shout warriors for whom conditions are barely an annoyance).

That said, I’m going to make my 11th toon a flamethrower engy. Not because it’s going to be awesomesauce, but because I’m amused by the idea of a flame spitting almost tank. I have a few ideas on the kind of equipment and runes I’m going to need to be effective, and I’m okay with knowing my necro and shout warrior are both better at dealing damage while tanking. It’s just going to be for fun.