Guild Wars 2

Before heart of thorns released, there was a thread about rating elite specs as they were revealed based solely on what we knew about them at the time. My list was not accurate, and I suspect that’s the case for others, as well.

This is based solely on my own style of play and preferred game modes. This is not meant to be an objective ranking of worst to best.

9. I thought this would be Dragonhunter, but it’s actually Chronomancer. I play a standard mesmer build in pvp, in fact. (When I play mesmer in pvp, that is.)
8. I thought this would be the Tempest, but that is laughably far from the truth. For me, this is Herald. I just haven’t played the revenant as much as I thought I would.
7. Originally, I had Chronomancer here. Instead, I’m going to go with the underwhelming Berserker.
6. This is originally where I had speculated Berserker would be on my list, but it’s actually where I’m putting Scrapper. I had speculated that Scrapper would be the biggest game-changer for me, but I actually don’t play it that often.
5. Daredevil, before and after. My original theory was that thieves were getting rifle, and that was uninspiring to me. Staff is quite a bit more interesting, but it’s just not my main focus right now.
4. I had put Druid in this spot, and while it’s close, Dragonhunter has shot up to claim this spot.
3. I thought this would be taken by the Herald, but I’m finding Tempest to be quite to my liking. I’m not a fan of the base class, so much, but Tempest has really captured my interest.
2. I had high hopes for Reaper, despite not playing a necromancer primarily. This spot instead goes to the staff Druid. I liked ranger well enough, but Druid gives it a lot of flair.
1. Replacing Scrapper as my original choice for the top slot is Reaper. This spec exceeded my expectations.

Not sure if sarcastic or expecting positive feedback. If former, I would like to claim this thread for my own.

I just leave here my top list. After experience all spec upgade adding another list
Top:
1) Reaper
2) Scrapper
3) Herald
4) Dragon Hunter
5) Chronomancer
6) Druid
7) Berserker
8) Tempest
9) Daredevil

I don’t see a question here. You stated your opinion based on your opinion.

This is based on my experiences playing though the personal story on all classes, twice for some, the HoT map metas enough for most of the mastery achieves, and a little WvW. I don’t raid.

9. Chronomancer – I feel similar as you about this. I don’t PvP, but when I play mesmer in WvW I haven’t been using chrono but rather plain mesmer. I have used it in PvE and like I like the wells, but I don’t feel as effective as I would like. This is probably because chrono is so supportive and I often run around more solo. I’d like chrono better if I played it better I suppose.

8. Druid – This is sort of like Chronomancer for me. I find myself playing ranger, or with the same style as with ranger even when druid. The new pets are good though. I play as straight pew pew power ranger when doing WvW and just haven’t tried really playing Druid there.

7. Dragonhunter – Not fair to judge this one because I am sort of terrible as a guardian and don’t play it much anyway. Traps are sort of fun. Longbow is fun though mindless. It is an improvement over guard for me. Haven’t tried DH at all in WvW.

6. Berserker – Another one that is probably not fair to judge because I think ANet still just doesn’t have warrior set up properly right now. It’s pretty fun and I’ve played through the personal story twice as a berserker. I do always use the elite spec when playing warrior because it seems more effective. Haven’t really tried it in WvW.

5. Herald – I like it pretty well and it is effective in PvE, but the class isn’t really all that good (for me) without playing Glint. Haven’t tried it in WvW. I like its mobility. Revenant still needs some tweaks overall.

4. Tempest – I like tempest well enough that I miss it when playing ele on an alt account that doesn’t have HoT. Ele still seems to need some work as a class though. I play staff tempest in both PvE and (a little) in WvW, the latter nuking and healing in the zerg or just mindlessly taking camps. I’ve played dagger as well, but am not very good at it.

3. Daredevil – I don’t play it in WvW, but it is fun in PvE. I love the mobility. It seems like a bit of a rip off for people who have always played thief that they sort of took away some of the previous mobility and play from thief and added it back in DD, but it is a lot of fun to play. Staff is a good weapon addition.

2. Scrapper – I sort of hated engineer and it was my least played class prior to HoT. I am terrible with kits and constant swapping and skill spamming but the scrapper has made the class playable and fun for me. Haven’t tried it in WvW, though I know it is effective there. I like the hammer quite a bit.

1. Reaper – Part of the reason this ranks here is that I like necro. It was my favorite class back in GW1. The reaper spec is just such a big improvement to necro that it changes the whole class. Greatsword is cool even if I still find myself playing dagger more. The class is quite playable in WvW as both condi and power and is a blast in PvE. Reaper seems to have made necro the attrition class that people expected it to be. Some seem to think it is OP in PvP. I wouldn’t know. I just hope it doesn’t get a nerf overall due to PvP. grin

Reaper for me, it kept me here and nothing else has captured my interest. That said if they nerf it into the ground for PvP in the April balance attempt I will be completely done with the game at that point. I love GW2 but i have only tolerated HoT as long as i have because of this elite build, if it’s tampered with because of PvP or WvW it will end my time with this game until it’s fixed..

Emerik.7846:

I don’t see a question here. You stated your opinion based on your opinion.

I had hoped to spark discussion about how peoples’ expectations of the specs versus the reality of them had panned out. The reason I said I was listing them based on my experiences is because I don’t want it to be about what’s meta, I want it to be about personal opinions.

Ok! Thank you for clarifying. My intent was not to be rude. Apologies if I came across that way.

1. Tempest – I like how it rewards staying longer in a attunement, can finally enjoy more ele than just PvE staff
2. Daredevil – staff and new dodges are enjoyable in PvE
3. Dragonhunter – well-designed archer class, though not a fan of the PvP burst aspect
4. Druid – a bit too complicated system, but gives well-rounded builds, for both PvE and PvP
5. Reaper – new shroud is so much more fun
6. Scrapper – less kit-dependent than engineer is good
7. Herald – brought down by the revenant’s rough/unfinished feel, decent in itself
8. Chronomancer – wells are ok I guess
9. Berserker – stressful design, only elite spec I didn’t enjoy

I’d have thought I’d enjoy druid and reaper more, I guess it’s a issue with greatsword and staff not being great enough. No surprice at still not liking berserker and chronomancer, I saw already at the elite spec reveals that they weren’t what I’d enjoy.

This is all PvP, isn’ it?

The elite specs can be divided in two groups. Reaper and everything else.

From a PvE perspective:

9. Scrapper: Even though I’m having a lot of fun with this in pvp, it doesn’t rly beat the condi engi in any way in pve so meh… No real use for it.

8. Dragonhunter: Despite guardian being my main, the elite spec feels uninspired, boring and didn’t change how the class plays whatsoever.

7. Tempest: the same as DH really. Unchanged gameplay. Only reason why it’s a spot ahead of DH is because I’m very salty about guardian balance.

6. Daredevil: In all honesty the staff is a fun weapon and I enjoy playing it. I just wish it was more than auto attacking.

5. Berserker: Didn’t change the warrior that much, but it still brings a nice change to it. The burnzerker was fun while it lasted, hope to see use of it again one day.

4. Reaper: shroud looks really cool and finally put necro in mid tier (tho I’m expecting them to drop to bottom tier again after tmr). Overall really enjoyable spec imo that got at least partially rid of that clunky sluggish feeling I get when playing core necro. Not liking GS tho.

3. Herald: It’s hard to rate this spec without rating the entire class, but imo as an elite spec it’s an extremely useful one that basically passively buffs everyone like crazy. Sadly the whole class suffers from a lot of balance issues between pve and pvp so right now it’s not really that useful anymore.

2. Druid: Very useful, very fun. First time I actually enjoyed playing ranger and currently the class I play most in raids.

1. Chronomancer: OP af… need I say more? :P

I havent played the elite spects thoroughly enough to have a funded opinion on all of them.
So, for now:

Bottom – Scrapper. OP in PvP, underwhleming in PvE. Stiff builds, boring exclusive mechanic, AI dependent, tiny fly over head. Only plus is hammer.

Top – Reaper. Simply amazing: interesting, great personality, flexible, FUN.

I’ve only tried reaper, Herald, and daredevil. Daredevil wins for me. It feels fast, fun, and powerful at least for open world HoT.

But I am new as off this year, so take that for what it’s worth.