Guild Wars 2

Wow, I’m surprised that Warrior and Ranger are the most popular and Mesmer is tied with Engineer for dead last, I like my Mesmer and play it all the time. Engineer I can understand it’s the most non traditional class but, the Mesmer is pretty close to a typical Mage. I always hear other players complain about the Ranger Class.

Source, just scroll down
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-the-firstyear/?session_key=172D3EBC-F347-4042-A739-A315452CBD58

It’s probably because they keep nerfing the kitten out of mesmer into oblivion

I was confused and figured that Ranger couldn’t be the second most popular class… then I joined a P.U.G. that had three Rangers >.<

I was surprised as you were given how much hate the rangers get when they are kicked from dungeons or even are not even allowed to join a dungeon group. Ranger is my number one toon. But with all the hate and outright mean discrimination by groups that is piled on to the class when it comes to running dungeons makes me wonder if the stat is number of how many of the profession that have been created, vs. how many are actually playing the profession
PS. reposted the link since I got a 404 from OPs link.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-the-first-year/

Ranger FTW!!!!!

Get mad at my longbow/shortbow zerker bearzzzzzzzzzzzzz

“Foo! Quaggan cannot find page!

Quaggan has been looking and looking but quaggan cannot find your page, only 404.

Quaggan does not think your page exists.

Quaggan sad."

I LOVE IT!

Makes sense, the PvE damage potential of the classes is almost perfectly mirrored in the class breakdown.

Not surprised at the ranger being 2nd most popular, but I am surprised by the mesmer being tied for least popular.

Well my main is a war, and I have necro, ele, and ranger alts. Waiting for character slots to go on sale again so I can use those to lvl 20 scrolls on a mesmer and engi.

I’m not too surprised that warriors are the highest so many just love going zerker and gs (though I thought thieves would have been higher). I can almost see mesmer not being too hight. I’d argue that ele is more of a mage than a mesmer, and mesmer requires a bit more micro with clones.

I am suprised ranger is so popular. I guess they’re easy mode. So are warriors.

Hmmm now it all makes sense. the 2 most easy mode classes are most popular.

Warrior and ranger are the two most straightforward professions. It’s not surprising, at least to me, anyway, that they’re the most popular.

Well, of course, they are super easy classes with one of the highest damage potential (for all those of you who keep believing that rangers are in a bad spot search Brazil ranger DPS or go to PvP for 10 minutes) As for Guardians and eles Im surprised they were ranked so low, I actually expected eles to be lower and guardians higher, which makes me question how that bar was confectioned; is it number of people who have these classes? (as in, having said class but on a lvl 2, just for PvP tryouts,) Or does it take into account lvl 80s only, if so, does it count hours played in the classes or just how many lvl 80 of said class oly.

If its hours played then guardians have less representation than an ele does not seem right. I play an ele myself (exclusively, and staff exclusively too) and I gotta admit every dungeon I run into has at least 1-2 guardians, guild events are guardians mostly, WvW commanders and 1/3 of the zerg guardians, PvP not so much though, whereas I can spend an entire day without seeing another ele other than myself. Makes me wonder

warrior and ranger on top i understand they are easy to understand and play professions. i cant get the hang of engineer so i understand why its at the bottom. im surprised guardian isnt higher they remind of the wammos everyone wanted to play as warrior in gw1. mesmer can be tough to grasp but is a fun class when you get it. so i can understand why they rank so low. id think necros and ele would be a bit higher too

My Ranger is my favorite character to play and I play her all the time. I just don’t try to get into groups with her… That’s what my Guardian is for.

Kind of like in GW1; I loved my Mesmer, but after being kicked for the Nth time from a group because of some idiot shouting that Mesmers sucked I finally made a Monk so I could experience group content. But my Mesmer was always my favorite character to play and she got all the goodies from my Monk’s hard work.

funkylovemonkey.3097:

My Ranger is my favorite character to play and I play her all the time. I just don’t try to get into groups with her… That’s what my Guardian is for.

Kind of like in GW1; I loved my Mesmer, but after being kicked for the Nth time from a group because of some idiot shouting that Mesmers sucked I finally made a Monk so I could experience group content. But my Mesmer was always my favorite character to play and she got all the goodies from my Monk’s hard work.

That actually makes sense, I myself, who play staff ele 98% of the time rolled a guardian not long ago, it is the one who runs TA, HoTW, Arah, FoTM while my ele has been receiving absolutely ALL the goodies, I was even able to beat Liadri with my guardian, something I could not do with my ele, I now (shamelessly) go around with my liadri mini on my ele. That would explain why dungeons have so many guardians, im also guilty of it and did not realize it :C

My sylvari mesmer is feeling fairly original now.

What you’ve got to remember is that the forum is a minority of the player base and probably leans towards the more well-informed end. GW2 is very much a casual friendly game and as a result it has a lot of casual players.

When most people create a character they’re not thinking about what will enable them to speed clear dungeons most efficiently, or even what will get them into the most dungeon groups. They’re looking for something they would find fun.

The ‘fighter’ class, like the Warrior, is always one of the most popular in any game because it’s usually one of the easiest to grasp and it fits most peoples idea of the archetypal adventurer. Probably the most common bit of advice I get about playing RPGs is to make your first character a fighter because it makes it easy to learn the game. (It’s advice I haven’t followed since I was 13 because in my experience it’s terrible, but I still keep hearing it.)

As for the Ranger? It’s also an easy profession to pick up and for a lot of people there is huge appeal in having exotic and cool pets following you around and helping you fight.

The Mesmer is probably at the opposite end of the scale. It’s a very unusual class, can be complicated and you really need to unlock your traits to get the full impression of it.

Excalibur.9748:

I am suprised ranger is so popular. I guess they’re easy mode. So are warriors.

Hmmm now it all makes sense. the 2 most easy mode classes are most popular.

I love these posts.
There is a “this class is easymode” post in regards of every class.

Yet you can easily see how wrong that is in sPvP and WvW.
Rangers are possibly the class with the wildest learning curve – it goes from Rangers I kill while playing with my feet to Rangers I need to back away from.
Warriors I meet go from a predictable nuisance to a real pain for you and your team.

Easier to learn maybe, but being a pain and making a difference with them is another story.

Thieves on the other hand… Hehe.
I have to admit my Thief almost plays itself.
It’s not that you have a lot of room for mistakes – you have a whole apartment for mistakes.
A 4-story building even, on some builds.
Still, funny class.

Not surprised rangers are near the top. You can log into my guild chat on any given day, swing a chair and hit two or three rangers with it. I’ve been in the 3 ranger groups too. Fun class, just wished they stacked better.

I am not surprised that Warriors made it at the top. I see tons of them running around. I’ve also seen a lot of rangers.

What I find funny is that I do not like my ranger hardly at all and it’s partly because of the pet’s stupid AI. However, I love my mesmer a lot. I find the illusions to be highly useful and love how resilient the class is for a light armor one.

I guess I had to be different by disliking one of the most popular classes and loving one of the least popular classes.

There are quite a lot of players like me who have all 8 character classes, so we boost all by +1.

Not surprised by Warriors being no.1.

Also, Rangers do appeal alot at the beginning, with there pets, open world PvE is very easy for them. Its endgame content and WvW the pet mechanic is exposed as being awful and the fact Rangers bring little to help groups. Also, remember Ranger is the no1 botting class for GW2, see a botter 9/10 its a Ranger, so that boosts them up alot too.

Guardian is surprising given how great the class is at everything…

rangers get exclusive pets for HOM’ing in GW1 which is why it was one of the first classes I made (6 level 80’s and my ranger is still level 16)

Most ppl( like me)picked ranger as the first toon because of the pet and range, then realized how awful it is in PvE, then move on to the most pve focused profession: warrior.

and yeah botters are mostly ranger, warrior, and guardian

Yeah, botting. Also solo players. Farmers with a quick hit and aoe. Lastly, easy leveling. Link doesn’t work, so I take it most rolled character classes which used to be guard back before the dungeon changes long ago. Rangers, most annoying class award. Yes I have one, but I have all classes.

Anet must’ve counted the botters too, because there is no way in hell that Rangers outnumber Thieves and Elementalists. Rangers just suck way too much due to the countless nerfs they’ve gotten.

Seriously though, try to find 5 rangers in the game in 10 hours that are level 80. You just can’t do it.

Oh and as for warrior, I won’t be surprised if the numbers start to slip post CoF1 nerf. This lost page doesn’t include most hours played per class? Oh I found the page https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-the-first-year/
(edit: oh someone already linked it, saw the post but missed the link)
Yeah, everyone rolls a ranger and warrior I’m sure, but I wonder what the stats are for most played class. Or even most played class non-solo. Mine is thief without needing to look.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

Not surprised at the ranger being 2nd most popular, but I am surprised by the mesmer being tied for least popular.

the second poster explained it perfecty
mesmers are the kings of nerfs, and noone likes getting nerfed into near uselessness day in day out.

at release mesmers had plenty good, fun builds for everything, the only limit was the player’s creativity

they are now down to 1 good build for PvE, 1 maybe 2 for WvW, and exactly ZERO for sPvP….and still people keep asking for more nerfs.

if anything, Im actually surprised that 10% still endure this rollercoaster and havent re-rolled war/guardian…

Galtrix.7369:

Seriously though, try to find 5 rangers in the game in 10 hours that are level 80. You just can’t do it.

That’s just complete fabrication.

Galtrix.7369:

Anet must’ve counted the botters too, because there is no way in hell that Rangers outnumber Thieves and Elementalists. Rangers just suck way too much due to the countless nerfs they’ve gotten.

Seriously though, try to find 5 rangers in the game in 10 hours that are level 80. You just can’t do it.

I see level 80 rangers all the time. Not sure where you’re looking.

The engineer numbers seem legit QQ.

You guys realize that graph is from the start of the game right?

You remember a huge population of a certain thing called Bots? Anyone remember what was played by the Bots? Rangers..

The break-down would look completely different if they compared time played instead of Alts-Rolled. ….I personally guarantee most of those rangers never made it past 20, and lots of people are probably going to have a hard time justifying even wasting one of those instant 20 scrolls on them (the ones who got a few)

Then there’s probably another big chunk of them that were all Bots, haha.
(like Xsorus^ just pointed out)

I didn’t choose the Charr Engineer life….

The Charr Engineer life chose me.

Phoenixfudge.5290:

I didn’t choose the Charr Engineer life….

The Charr Engineer life chose me.

That is a dammed fine screenshot!

Ping.5739:

and yeah botters are mostly ranger, warrior, and guardian

Ever been to Orr? It’s quite obvious the big majority of bots are Necromancers, using minions and a Superior Sigil of Luck.

Because mesmer is nowhere near the mesmer in gw1. Mesmer in gw1 could destroy or shutdown entire mobs.

Heh … yeah Mesmer. It was so good that even though I mained Monk, people would tell me to bring my Mesmer instead most of the time for stuff like UW b/c those same Twitch reflexes that make you a fast life saver as monk, made you an even better Lockdown mesmer. The fact you did tons of damage while doing it is probably what they cared about most tho. …2 birds with one stone.

Those are totals. It would be interesting to see proportions at 80. I see many char running around, I see many mesmers and engi running around. I personally love my hunter and the irrational hate is amusing.

Warrior – highest dps
Ranger – ez wvw/farm, common botter class

People see mesmers quite often and think that mesmers are popular.
In fact there are 4 times less mesmers than you actually see

Tbh i’m surprised to see Guardian so low, tieing with Nec for the 4th/5th place, compared to Thieves and Eles.

Xsorus.2507:

You guys realize that graph is from the start of the game right?

Actually if you look for the graph just after launch, yes it’s pretty well identical, from like Oct 2012. I was going to mention it, but it was on some guys blog and didn’t want to link it. Yeah like to a tee as I look close at it now, from launch…
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……..

Oh here, with following source links I came up with this:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/john-smith-on-the-state-of-the-guild-wars-2-economy/
Now, is that the same stats or not?
I just see a slight move, and it doesn’t give % on the original.
I’d still like to see most hours played on class, I think that’ll say much more. We all start with five slots after all. And I’ve seen a lot of people leave the game and be replace by newer accounts. Then yes, the huge amounts of botter accounts, many probably banned accounts.

I’m an engi main.

I do have all of the classes, and do find my Warrior/Ranger to be easy mode in PvE.
But I love my engi, tricky learning curve to really get the most out of it. Especially to get the most out of your class in a dungeon party requires crazy amounts of comboing, controlling the bosses defiance and aoe healings.

I will admit, that many engi’s that I have played with are just a liability in PvE. any boss will sneeze and destroy all their turrets, then pull some reflect skill and then the engies lack of access to anything melee (yeh, I know tool, but its annoying to waste a slot for something basic) will just render then pointless, then they have way less survivability than a warior or guard or necro. So being effective is kitten tricky.. but possible

Anet you created this unusual class, show it some love.

Not sure the stat means much. Is it for 80s only? If not, is there an 80s only one we can compare it to, so we can see how many people drop each profession?

I can’t say i’m surprised.
The endgame is all about cosmetics. The class that can’t use those cosmetics is the least popular profession.
Not to talk about constant nerfs (mostly only due to pvp) and unresolved bugs (i wonder if they’ll fix turrets with the next update…).

I am surprised that Mesmer is so little played
I have a Mesmer, Engineer, Ranger 80’s and I play all of them but I play my Engi and my Ranger more.

Don’t even have a Warrior

Excalibur.9748:

I am suprised ranger is so popular. I guess they’re easy mode. So are warriors.

Hmmm now it all makes sense. the 2 most easy mode classes are most popular.

Part and parcel to the popularity of warrior is how whenever people come to the forums to ask what profession to play when starting out, warrior tends to be the first that most people recommend.

And I always said that the only people who don’t have mesmer alts are people who main mesmer. Guess I was wrong.

Meglobob.8620:

There are quite a lot of players like me who have all 8 character classes, so we boost all by +1.

And then there are players like me who have multiple of some classes and one or zero of others….

Race wise, I’m almost equal, just have one asura extra.

And nobody loves the Charr… Almost worth getting a female engineer charr… (already have two mesmers…)