Guild Wars 2

If you had to rank pve DPS classes what would your rank be? Let’s say they all have zerk gear and optimal DPS spec. I’m guessing warrior is number one curious after that.

Though some people say mesmers rank first and thieves second, unless Im provided with some up-to-date spreadsheet that proves otherwise, I will say that from personal experience corroborated by my fellow day-to-day players;

Warrior
Mesmer
Guardian
Ranger
Engineer (*sorry, forgot…..then again, I barely see them, and when i do they are condicrap :/ )
Thief
Elementalist
necromancer

too many variables. Do you mean melee or ranged? burst or sustained? single target or multiple target? level 1 or level 80?

Engineer doesn’t even make the list? I ment optimal single target DPS. Melee or ranged, even though melee does more DMG.

Kind of shocked to see ranger so high on that list as well.

I do believe an engineer does more than a necro, even if a necro is speced for DPS.

Fortus.6175:

Though some people say mesmers rank first and thieves second, unless Im provided with some up-to-date spreadsheet that proves otherwise, I will say that from personal experience corroborated by my fellow day-to-day players;

Warrior
Mesmer
Guardian
Ranger
Thief
Elementalist
necromancer

That… isn’t exactly right. Number crunchers in the Dungeon forum will give you this as a general answer:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Max buffed, from best to worst:

Mesmer (Sw/Sw with 3 phantasms) = ~15k
Thief (D/D backstab) = ~13.5k
Elementalist (fire staff or LH) = ~13k
Guardian (GS+Sword) = ~11k
Necromancer (D/F+WH with all minions) = ~11k
Warrior (Axe+GS) = ~10k
Ranger (Sword and Feline pet) = ~9.5k
Engineer (Grenades) = ~9k

Thief is the highest in an optimal group setting. Warrior being highest is such a common misconception, it’s just easier to achieve that high DPS. 1 Warrior is all you need (to take banners), a second is a “waste” of a slot and could be filled by a better profession.

Warcry.1596:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Max buffed, from best to worst:

Mesmer (Sw/Sw with 3 phantasms) = ~15k
Thief (D/D backstab) = ~13.5k
Elementalist (fire staff or LH) = ~13k
Guardian (GS+Sword) = ~11k
Necromancer (D/F+WH with all minions) = ~11k
Warrior (Axe+GS) = ~10k
Ranger (Sword and Feline pet) = ~9.5k
Engineer (Grenades) = ~9k

Sadly, Guang is known for being purely theoretical and those values are so off in practice. Take the Mesmer for example, he totally disregards the time to get 3 phantasms up (bosses are dead by then anyway), as well as any cleave/shatters they die from.

Common consensus is engineer is the worst dps?

Flissy.4093:

Thief is the highest in an optimal group setting. Warrior being highest is such a common misconception, it’s just easier to achieve that high DPS. 1 Warrior is all you need (to take banners), a second is a “waste” of a slot and could be filled by a better profession.

Warcry.1596:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Max buffed, from best to worst:

Mesmer (Sw/Sw with 3 phantasms) = ~15k
Thief (D/D backstab) = ~13.5k
Elementalist (fire staff or LH) = ~13k
Guardian (GS+Sword) = ~11k
Necromancer (D/F+WH with all minions) = ~11k
Warrior (Axe+GS) = ~10k
Ranger (Sword and Feline pet) = ~9.5k
Engineer (Grenades) = ~9k

Sadly, Guang is known for being purely theoretical and those values are so off in practice. Take the Mesmer for example, he totally disregards the time to get 3 phantasms up (bosses are dead by then anyway), as well as any cleave/shatters they die from.

On the necro, D/F+WH, what’s that mean? Dagger / focus and warhorn? I’ve always though double daggers were highest DPS for necro. And you can’t have focus on main hand I don’t think. I’m a pure condition build, so have little DPS, but I am curious about other builds.

This is my list. Highest damage to lowest damage.

Warrior
Guardian
Thief
Elementalist
Mesmer
Necromancer
Engineer
Ranger

Don’t yell at me for putting the Ranger as last. I played a Ranger from the beginning of Guild Wars 1 all the way up until the end of my Guild Wars 2 days which was 3 or 4 months ago when I quit. It deserves to be put there.

Elementalist is highest, warrior is upper average.

there are real life number crunchers in the dungeon forums that crunch in game numbers for us because they like doing math.. (I know crazy right)

from my PERSONAL experience and viewing. I will assume the following. of a 5 second dps window for allowances for skills to process correctly. assuming that all are “fully buffed”

in approximately 5 seconds I have seen the following do…

Elementalist : 100k (fire rush with FgS)
Guardian: 49k (whirling wrath)
Warrior: 33k (100 blades) (I have also seen a single hit for 27k)
Necromancer: 31k. (Ghastly claws)
Thief: 22k (cloak and dagger with backstab)
Ranger: 20k (auto attack chain with sword)
Mesmer: 18k (blurred frenzy with phantasms out, if you want to add the phantasm damage in it would be closer to 25k)(I am not an expert on this and will willingly stand aside to someone who knows better)
Engineer: sadly I have not had the privilege of seeing the big numbers from them, only heresy. I do not doubt in the slightest that it can be achieved though. auto attack on ’nade kit does something to the tune of 5k per toss. so if we go with a 5 second window were looking at 20 k ish on auto attack. (again I am not an expert of this either, and would willingly stand aside for someone who knows better.)

Guan, does have the right of it though. number Crunchers and practice have yielded these results.

Warrior is number one, no contest. Not in the sense of who does most DPS in optimal setting, but certainly in the sense who does the most DPS on average. Thieves/eles/guards/mesmers can dish out more if the situation is right and if they know what they are doing. But what I’m saying is: Only 10% of players know how to out-dps a warrior with their class in 50% of situations. What makes warrior the most desirable dps in a random group are not just his unique buffs, but his reliability: It’s hard to die, it’s hard to screw up, it’s hard to do low dps. Warriors for the win.

Lampshade.7569:

Warrior is number one, no contest. Not in the sense of who does most DPS in optimal setting, but certainly in the sense who does the most DPS on average. Thieves/eles/guards/mesmers can dish out more if the situation is right and if they know what they are doing. But what I’m saying is: Only 10% of players know how to out-dps a warrior with their class in 50% of situations. What makes warrior the most desirable dps in a random group are not just his unique buffs, but his reliability: It’s hard to die, it’s hard to screw up, it’s hard to do low dps. Warriors for the win.

I saw a stream once of a Warrior doing CoE. He used Zerker gear, probably a defensive build and GS only. For Alpha he was too afraight to use 100b so he used gs auto only. My condition necro could have out dpsed this guy.

You can screw up everything…

Lampshade,

You are correct in many regards. Warrior is easy mode. other classes can out damage it but it requires work and thought.

Molch, Yes you can screw up anything. I have seen some pretty sad damage output from warriors. but to each there own.

ultimately it does come down to how well you can play your class. and what kind of co-ordination you can achieve with your group. A Warrior and a thief alone can put up 25 stacks of might easily.

engi dps is slightly less than warrior

Hard to tell. There’s a theoretical DPS ranking for each class based on what the maximum is for each class, but that fails to take into account of the fact that you can’t always pull it off.

Realistically, I’d say its something like:

Warriors
Guardians
Thieves
Mesmer
Ele
Engi
Ranger
Necro

Mesmers have best DPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFSs5jVthTA

@Rafi : YEs, yes they do. so high that Anet had to nerf them. I have to say though watching them kill Lupi in 4 seconds was awesome,

@Xae: optimal setting do have to be taken into account yes, But I will still stand by my numbers for the most part as most as with knowledge most of the classes are capable of achieving “optimal” settings on their own.

again from what I have personally seen.

Warrior: 27k single hit was a solo instance.
Necromancer 31k Ghastly claws was a solo instance.
Thief: I have personally done those numbers solo. and stacking buffs on my own.
Ranger: I have personally done those numbers out in the world.

In the grand scheme of things. I think that It really does come down to the player itself. and or the group you are running with. Every class is capable of big and or similar numbers damage wise. what makes a class undesirable for some content is the ease of which people can play them. Why are warriors popular in PvE? because its easy mode. Why are Necromancers popular in WvW, because its easy mode.

(I realize that I may be way off kilter or preaching to the choir, meh. )

Ropechef.6192:

Warrior: 33k (100 blades) (I have also seen a single hit for 27k)

thats actually low, REALLY low. There was a dude who did 49k in CoF, and thats lvl 75…… on a lvl 80 he would have easily done 55k+

Solo warrior 100b test(s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mcaVPJnniU

How would you even go about calculating these numbers?

My Ranger’s Rapid Fire tops out at just under 15k. With 5 targets from arrow piercing and quickening zephyr, its about 75k damage in 2 seconds and that’s not factoring in the pet. Of course if I’m in CoE and stacked under subject alpha I’m useless.

it seems far, far too situational to ever get any kind of decent number.

This is fact: Thief —-→Ele —→Mesmer --→ Guardian —→Engineer --→Warrior —→ Ranger --→necro

I really wish I could -1 a post. Fortus has time and time again proven he is absolutely clueless and it never changes.

Anyway, at the end of the day most of this discussion is pointless. You can go ahead and figure out who can do the most damage in a very specific isolated environment, but the reality of it is that if you have to ask this question in the first place, then these numbers won’t mean anything to you. The game is not just about damage, there are countless other variables that need to be considered and factored in in order to create an ideal scenario.

An obvious example would just be buffs and debuffs. The majority of people do not even consider them and so a group of berserker whatever that maintains 25 stacks of might and 25 stacks of vulnerability will vastly outdamage a group that doesn’t consider it. Then you have unique support, no a warrior will not deal as much raw damage as other classes, but the banners and traits make them needed anyway.

Ultimately, every class has its uses, some are more useful in some situations than others, and every class is able to deal high damage as long as the person playing it is competent.

"" Ultimately, every class has its uses, some are more useful in some situations than others, and every class is able to deal high damage as long as the person playing it is competent. """

very much this.

Ropechef.6192:

@Xae: optimal setting do have to be taken into account yes, But I will still stand by my numbers for the most part as most as with knowledge most of the classes are capable of achieving “optimal” settings on their own.

Well, what I was getting at is that for example, its often very unrealistic for a melee class to be able to constantly stick to their target in things like high leveled FotM, thus pure DPS numbers aren’t really realistic.

Mesmer’s optimal DPS involves setting up a whole bunch of illusions and keeping them alive. In most bosses with AoEs, that’s just basically impossible since for example, at Lupi, its 1 p2 AoE and thats 3 warlocks/izerkers gone.

Also, in alot of situations, like for example, the boss in the Dredge fractal (because it screws up the pulling), or Molten boss fractal (until you get very used to the boss anyways), melee is just excluded as a valid option altogether.

In practice you always want at least one warrior for banners. (addional 25%+ party-wide damage)

An obvious example would just be buffs and debuffs. The majority of people do not even consider them and so a group of berserker whatever that maintains 25 stacks of might and 25 stacks of vulnerability will vastly outdamage a group that doesn’t consider it. Then you have unique support, no a warrior will not deal as much raw damage as other classes, but the banners and traits make them needed anyway.

Warriors are really good in this yes. A typical 1 mesmer, 4 warriors cof party would generally maintain both 25 might stacks (warbanners, gs trait) and 25 vuln stacks (on my mark).

Dog.1472:

snip

you are the clueless one here, scroll up, read the OP and the title; this is exclusively about DPS. There is plenty of proves about overall DPS of classes. Besides a mesmer nobody cares for anything but DPS in CoF. Except for maybe a guardian or maybe a mesmer, nobody cares about anything but DPS in most other dungeons, which can even be done without those classes. Play a little more, specially with premade exclusive dungeon runners like me and you’ll learn that. No need to apologize to us, not everyone has experience in the game, so im glad to teach anytime.

@Topic: OP, I have 4 characters exclusively setup for dungeon runs, I have a premade which runs most dungeons on a regular basis, weekends we run them almost all but Arah p4 due to lenght , CM sometimes and TA aether path which is also lengthy. From personal experience I can tell you that this is how it goes:

Guardian: needed mostly in TA, only one is needed, for the staff autoattack, alsoways good to have one in party at all times. GS & sw/f. DPS is decent to good, but not the best compared to the rest Im going to bring to this table.

Mesmer: A must have in any group, ability to buff party, unparallel reflects makes Arah a piece of cake. DPS is probably the highest out there. You bring this guy because it has no draw backs.

Warrior: While Mesmer has the best theoretical damage, this one has the best practical damage. Banners make the difference. On top of that you have a class that unlike others, can stay in the middle of combat doing DPS all the time without having to worry about anything else. Their job is to kill things, and kill them fast, and thus they excell at it. Your safest bet is warrior for DPS in pug as well as premades.

Elementalist: Optional, situational, used mostly in AC and some parts of Arah where you can stack the boss, specially if you can stack lupi agaisnt the wall. Good DPS but in pugs they spend most of their time trying to heal rather than actually doing DPS.

Overall this is the DPS dungeon trinity of the game: Mesmer/Guardian/Warrior. Anything but that is superfluous and just there to fill in, except the occasional elementalist. Hope that helps.

Peetee.9406:

How would you even go about calculating these numbers?

My Ranger’s Rapid Fire tops out at just under 15k. With 5 targets from arrow piercing and quickening zephyr, its about 75k damage in 2 seconds and that’s not factoring in the pet. Of course if I’m in CoE and stacked under subject alpha I’m useless.

it seems far, far too situational to ever get any kind of decent number.

Well, your problem is that you’re using Rapid Fire.

Get yourself a sword and warhorn and get in melee where you’re supposed to be. Watch your DPS go up.

ranger DPS bad?! lol

People seriously need to stop running the bear bow…. you cant complain about a class if you keep playing it wrong. It surprises me seeing so many people actually believe rangers have problems. (other than the pet, I agree the pet is totally and utterly useless)

Fortus.6175:

ranger DPS bad?! lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWQ-39_C8LI

People seriously need to stop running the bear bow…. you cant complain about a class if you keep playing it wrong. It surprises me seeing so many people actually believe rangers have problems. (other than the pet, I agree the pet is totally and utterly useless)

This. I meet a lot of Guards who are CONVINCED that their own class is a weak DPS class and their only option is to “tank” or “heal” or something equally absurd.

It’s a matter of know your class. That’s why I post on my LFG “Thank you for reading: LF DPS Speed Run Path _.” If I see range camping early enough on, we boot. Usually an advert like that draws the right people. Played with plenty of Rangers who contributed wholly to the team effort; spirits, spotter, and their damage is very solid too (frankly I don’t roll a Ranger and don’t know much on their DPS).

Fortus.6175:

Dog.1472:

snip

you are the clueless one here, scroll up, read the OP and the title; this is exclusively about DPS. There is plenty of proves about overall DPS of classes. Besides a mesmer nobody cares for anything but DPS in CoF. Except for maybe a guardian or maybe a mesmer, nobody cares about anything but DPS in most other dungeons, which can even be done without those classes. Play a little more, specially with premade exclusive dungeon runners like me and you’ll learn that. No need to apologize to us, not everyone has experience in the game, so im glad to teach anytime.

@Topic: OP, I have 4 characters exclusively setup for dungeon runs, I have a premade which runs most dungeons on a regular basis, weekends we run them almost all but Arah p4 due to lenght , CM sometimes and TA aether path which is also lengthy. From personal experience I can tell you that this is how it goes:

Guardian: needed mostly in TA, only one is needed, for the staff autoattack, alsoways good to have one in party at all times. GS & sw/f. DPS is decent to good, but not the best compared to the rest Im going to bring to this table.

Mesmer: A must have in any group, ability to buff party, unparallel reflects makes Arah a piece of cake. DPS is probably the highest out there. You bring this guy because it has no draw backs.

Warrior: While Mesmer has the best theoretical damage, this one has the best practical damage. Banners make the difference. On top of that you have a class that unlike others, can stay in the middle of combat doing DPS all the time without having to worry about anything else. Their job is to kill things, and kill them fast, and thus they excell at it. Your safest bet is warrior for DPS in pug as well as premades.

Elementalist: Optional, situational, used mostly in AC and some parts of Arah where you can stack the boss, specially if you can stack lupi agaisnt the wall. Good DPS but in pugs they spend most of their time trying to heal rather than actually doing DPS.

Overall this is the DPS dungeon trinity of the game: Mesmer/Guardian/Warrior. Anything but that is superfluous and just there to fill in, except the occasional elementalist. Hope that helps.

warrior is average.
in groups guardian deals more dps than warrior. in optimal situations guard is rank 2.
ele deals the most dps in the game. with fgs/lh or staff.

http://imgur.com/a/PsqB1

and that was with a bunch of friends, no stacks and far from optimized.

3 warrior, 1 mesmer, 1 guardian times are over and people should simply accept that fact.

Elementalists deal the most damage in the game with LH or Staff builds. Common knowledge.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Hard to tell. There’s a theoretical DPS ranking for each class based on what the maximum is for each class, but that fails to take into account of the fact that you can’t always pull it off.

Realistically, I’d say its something like:

Warriors
Guardians
Thieves
Mesmer
Ele
Engi
Ranger
Necro

you can always deal more dps with ele than with any other profession.

@Big Tower.5423: no this isnt fact.

NoTrigger.8396:

you can always deal more dps with ele than with any other profession.

SHHhhhhhh, man! Cant you appreciate what Im trying to do here?!