Guild Wars 2

I am planning to pick up GW2 again after not playing it much since a few months after HoT. There is a lot of information to re-consume and a lot of updates to professions and I’m sure the meta for professions with the elite specs has changed. So What I really am hoping to find out are four things:

1) What professions are currently filling what roles? Or rather, who is best at what? for example, I am guessing ranger is best at healing etc.

2) What characters have had the most drastic changes from elite specializations?

3) Is the thief useful with the staff? This is more specific but I’m just curious

4) From what I’ve read already, the Revenant isn’t the hottest class right now. Is A-Net still balancing the game? Mainly wondering if that will become more relevant, but also just curious about the game’s upkeep.

I appreciate any responses.

Incoming war of words about which class heals best…

^Healing classes: druid, tempest, guard, rev.^

^Druid^: ok sustain good, okay burst heal, a 10% dmg buff. (^weapons^: Staff/ sword warhorn)

^Tempest^: great sustain, ok burst it also nice utility. (^weapon^: staff or idk some water element meme set)

^Gaurd^: amazing sustain, meh burst insane prot and aegis uptime. (^weapon^: mace and shield x2 (diff sigils) or mace shield /hammer)

^Rev^: meh sustain, INSane burst sone interesting utility.(“weapons”: staff/ sword and shield)

^Buffing classes: Chrono, Warr, Druid.^

^Chron^: GODLIKE BUFFING, abysmall personal dmg, insane dmg avoidance (personal and group wide) ideal tank (distort is just broken and trivialises the content). (^weapons^: sword and shield/focus/sword)

^Ps Warr^: meh dmg, good might output, great buffing through banners and ea, nice cc. (^weapons^: Gs / mace/axe and shield)

^CPs Warr^: great dmg, good might output, great buffing through banners, idk about cc tbh (this build is kinda broken atm) (^weapons^: longbow/ sword and torch)

^Condi/Power drud^: Sacrifice healing for dmg (are just there for spirits and Gotl(10%dmg buff) Condi>Power. (^weapons power^: sword and axe/warhorn/ longbow ^condi^: shortbow/ axe and torch)

^Dps classes: Guard, Tempest, Thief, Engi, Warr, Ranger, Necro, Rev, Mesmer.^

^Power/Condi Gaurd^: Nice dmg and ok buffing (mostly there for dmg) Condi scale better in aoe fight but its still weaker compaired to power. (^weapons power^: Gs / scepter and torch (mainly)^condi^: no clue lul)

^Power/Condi Tempest^: Power has ok dmg on small hitboxes and insane dmg on big ones(boss size) its also a harder class to master. Comdi ele is ez af and its broken overall. (^weapons power^: scepter/dagger and warhorn or staff ^condi^: scepter and dagger(?))

^Power/Condi Thief^: Good dps high mobility weak support ez playstyle. Condi is so broken its not even funny. (^weapons power^: staff (mainly) ^condi^: d/d)

^Power/Condi Eng^: Both good power has ok dps amd its easier to play. Condi provides a dmg buff to condi and alot of fieldblasting (iirc) More complex playstyle greater dmg output. (^weapon power^: rifle ^cond^: p/p)

^Condi Warr^: Really good dps low support, Not hard playstyle. (^weapons^: longbow/ sword and torch)

^Condi Ranger^: Really good dps, low on the support side. (^weapons^: shortbow/ axe torch)

^Condi mesmer^: great dmg on moving targets and targets that attack often. Meh dmg on static ones. (^weapons^: scepter and torch/pistol)

^Condi rev^ same case with condi mesmer. (^weapons^: Mace and axe x2 with diff sigils)

Stronger healer drud ( for all the wrong reasons)
All support/buff builds are needed
Strongest dps Tempest( condi>power>most other classes) and Condi thief. The rest are equaly good staff thief is fine tbh nice dmg.