Guild Wars 2

Looking for a high damage class with decent survivability. Want the class to have some level of skill involved, and not just “hit 1,2,3, repeat”.

Elementalist sounds the fastest to die. No escapes and low hp.
Mesmer and Thief have high mobility (sneak and teleport)
Necro sounds the tankiest, but also the weakest in terms of damage.

^^^^^^^ is that about right?

My main focus I’d think would be

1. WvW
2. PvE
3. PvP

Feel free to recommend another class too, looking for high damage decent survivability. Probably not going for elementalist cus they die too fast.

Ele is hardest to master, since you have so many skills at your disposal (25), but it’s not slow, you can escape pretty well with Ele. The ele is squishy with lowest health/armor. Necro does not much damage and is rather a condition master which is a bit broken in PvE. Mesmer is also on the lower end of the damage in PvE. Thief has very hight dps similar to ele with less group support but comes with nice stealth abilities.

So for you, go either with thief or ele.

Points according to my knowledge, and this criteria:

wvw zerg, wvw roaming, pve dungeon, spvp organized, spvp solo.

Thief: 2, 5, 3, 4, 4 (specially good for roaming as you can disengage, you die less)
Necro: 5, 1, 1, 3, 4 (for roaming, foes just escape and you cannot win. worst dungeon profession right now)
Elementalist: 5, 4, 5, 4, 4 (very versatile. part of many metas)
Mesmer: 3, 4, 3, 5, 3 (good for roaming and lethal in organized spvp)

Well if you don’t want ele then I would say none of those.

Warrior or Guardian are your best bets. They do lots of damage and have lots of survivability.

There are no trade offs in this game. In most MMO’s having more health and more armor means you have less mobility and less damage, but GW2 chose not to follow this idea. Warrior has the highest armor in the game, the highest health in the game, the highest mobility in the game, the 3rd highest support in the game, and the 3rd highest damage in the game. (All for PvE, things are more balanced in PvP).

Your best all around and easiest to use class is the warrior. Guardian has less health and (slightly) less damage, but offers better support. Ele and thief offer the best damage, and high mobility, but less health/armor. Mesmer/Engineer offer middle of the road dps, good utility, but lower mobility and health/armor. Ranger offers above average everything, but not the best at any one thing. Necro pretty much offers you nothing that can’t be done better by someone else. They have no support or utility, low dps, and the worst mobility in the game. They are very tough though, so you get to watch your character be useless for longer.

Out of the four professions you mention I would choose Thief or Mesmer. Both have high damage and are able to escape situations better than most.

I think it really comes down to which role you feel you would enjoy most. Thief and Mesmer both excel at roaming in WvW, but are not so good at bunching up in the zerg ball and living long enough to tell the tale. Not that they cannot run with a zerg, but they tend to take more of a back line ranged role or a flanking picking of the enemy back line role.

The Elementalist is a difficult profession to play well, so if it is skill requirement that is your main focus, you may enjoy the ele more. They can be very good in the zerg blob and in the back line support and damage roles, but are weaker at roaming than thief and mes.

Necromancer can be an easy profession to play and can run with the zerg. They can roam a little, with the right build, but are weak at it compared to other profs.

Like I say, it depends on which role you will enjoy the most. If you like roaming and small group fights you will want a prof that can escape when needed, and no prof escapes better than thief/mesmer. If you prefer big zerg v zerg fights and taking towers and keeps, you may prefer ele/necro, though I think you would prefer the skill requirement of the ele more.

As an alternative suggestion, I would also recommend engineer. They are just as versatile as ele and require skill to play well. They can be built for damage or support pretty well and are good at rolling with the zerg. They can be ok roamers too if built for it.

My advise would be to go to the PvP mists lobby and try each out vs the npc there, trying different builds. See which fits with your playstyle most and which fills your preferred role better.

Good luck in deciding.

Open world content with mesmer is not easy due to lack of AoEs and lack of out-of-combat mobility. Mesmers are more focused on single target dps, or rely on cleave damage. But Mesmers are great for dungeons and WvW, zergs or roaming. They’re also very strong in PvP.

Simply put, you’ll have a tricky time leveling a mesmer if it’s your first toon. I don’t know about necros, but Eles are like the jack of all trade.

fracture.9754:

This is complete misinformation. Necro does NOT depend on conditions, is pretty OK DPS wise in pure power build, but doesn’t bring anything else. For a necro to deal comparable DPS to a warrior (which is possible) he will not bring anything else. Warrior will bring lots of group buffs AS WELL the DPS, hence he’s wanted more.

It’s not pretty ok dps. Necro dps without a warrior in the party is well below warrior dps.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bAcpwAdwB24CxK_Ziy8ygISUHCkQepLfRMh2_PtP52o/edit?pli=1#gid=1883199869

Warrior on the party: close to 10.000 dps
Necro in the party, no warrior: close to 7.000dps.

So warrior does +41% damage than necro, not counting the effect his boons have on the rest of the party. Even with a warrior and a ranger on the party, the necro cannot come close to warrior dps without ranger on the party. It’s sad.

Arikyali.5804:

Open world content with mesmer is not easy due to lack of AoEs and lack of out-of-combat mobility. Mesmers are more focused on single target dps, or rely on cleave damage. But Mesmers are great for dungeons and WvW, zergs or roaming. They’re also very strong in PvP.

Simply put, you’ll have a tricky time leveling a mesmer if it’s your first toon. I don’t know about necros, but Eles are like the jack of all trade.

I hear this a lot, but I do not agree with it. They may not have the AoE choice some other profs have, but they do have enough. GS for example, combined with shattering, can provide decent AoE. It might not be on par with staff ele, but it is more than enough in my opinion. I had no problem at all leveling my mesmer in PvE or WvW.

I think it really comes down to what fits you. If you cannot find a build that clicks with the way you like to play you will struggle to make it work and ultimately you will struggle to enjoy it. That is why I suggest trying out profs and builds in the mists. That way you don’t have to level or spend tons of gold on gear to try things out.

Devilmonk.8163:

Feel free to recommend another class too, looking for high damage decent survivability. Probably not going for elementalist cus they die too fast.

Eles can be tanky or the highest damage class but can also be spec’d some where in the middle. Tanky or glass I’d go elementalist.

Ele is very versatile, Ultra High DPS (AOE) can be used extensively to buff and support, but you’ll need somone to keep an eye out for you…

Mesmer can be very nice to play, it started out as a condition based shutdown proffession, at presesnt it is also the ONLY build which can use conditions for full effect in PvE (confusion and torment are not easily capped.. As A DPS build it’s powerfull and if you’re somewhat experience it can bring som nice utility to bear which is unique for mesmer, few party wide buffs though. Mesmer conditin damage can be highest ingame atm, unfortunately conditions have extremely short durations. (buffing 3 seconds by 70% sitll gives you only 5 seconds, while many other condition using classes have skills with up to 10,15,20 or even 45 seconds duration, unbuffed…. limited use of party wide invisibility

Ranger can add instant 20 vulnerability to each starting fight and buff party with 170 precision. has an aoe healing skill with condi removal. Trapper condition builds can have a small niche use as well. The pet is insta killed in zergs in WvW however, and is a big part of DPS builds (RaO,needs to have an alive pet for good buffs)

Necro’s have DPS and support builds They can reach the same amounts of power as warrriors, Have a second HP bar in DS, and can be decent AOE fighters, As condition builds they can be nice providing decentt dmg with ok duration. The have acces to fear, which can be used to devastaing effects in some maps, As a suppor build It can be a decent healing class with acces to protection and many conditions, necro is also used as boon stripper.

Thief is high dmg single target in which it is unmatched. The stealth (invisibility but NOT compatible wit mesmer(!) or vice versa) is applicable for longer periods (thief can supply 8-12 secolds f stealth where mesmer makes due with 3-4) condition thief is a niche, fun and unpredictable, and quite deadly in it’s own way….

I run all 4 classes and Iwill not make a choice for you I think all have god uses. Meta dictates ele as a neccesity and thief and mesmer as alernates, but present meta is stale AND in error a lot of the time and still only based on DPS while efficient use of utilities makes some classes preferable over others higherup in the meta. 2nd problem is people need to know their classes before using it, whcih tends to hamper many, when ranger recieved it’s buffs many rolled rangers only to be stuck in bearbow themselves…

It’s been my experience that all of those classes, (played well) are tough to kill in PvP and do a lot of damage.

Shatter Mesmer has an amazing burst. Ele stacks boons, Thief backstabs for a heavy burst and I play a Condi Necro. I can often melt a guard or engi in seconds if the situation is right on Necro. That class is also good from the survival viewpoint.

If new.. thief is probably hardest to survive. Ele probably the easiest.

Rangers rank fairly low on my personal list but they are easy to play enough to get along. They might be a good entry level class.

fracture.9754:

That sheet hasn’t been updated for nearly a year. Warriors have since been nerfed and necros buffed. We’ve asked DeKeyz to update it but it’s a lot of work and I honestly don’t believe she wants to do it after every update.

It’s ok, I’m used to people not adapting very fast. Last time I had the unfortunate luck of having to pug I see people still stack everywhere, which makes no sense for a long time now. Oh well

EDIT: Don’t get me wrong, I fully agree a warrior is a much better class than necro for dungeons. It’s not even close. We’re discussing pure DPS number here.

This was from june, I think. Since then, nothing brought necro damage up for single target (they did almost double it for dagger trash packs).

And what’s bad about stacking? you get power from blasting fire fields, you get protection from that fractal hammer guardian, you get more damage from warrior GS3, staff ele #4, necro golem charge, you are all behind the same reflect wall, you can revive fallen comrades faster, etc, etc etc etc etc…

Thief and mesmer are high risk high reward that need to set up their damage. Fresh air ele needs to set up it’s damage, necro kinda just holds W while pianoing it’s keyboard.
d/d ele is really really face roll and just does a rotation for 15 minutes until it outlasts people.