Guild Wars 2

What do you think, lore-wise, is the most powerful profession?

Chronomancer – that’s why they never made it into the game.

On a serious note though, in regards to the magical professions they’re all balanced out thanks to the Bloodstones (mechanic balancing irregardless), and they’re all physically weaker than the less magical professions, but said less magical professions fail at magical defenses.

So it all more or less evens out. There is no profession clearly more powerful than others.

“Wizards” will always be more powerful, when you think about it. They have the ability to manipulate reality like conjuring up a tornado of fire from thin air. No matter how good you are at swinging that sword around, I just don’t see that being at the same scale of “power” as being able to wield magic.

Like Lord of the Rings: none of the “physical” heroes ever come close to the power of the “magical” ones, i.e Aragorn vs. Gandalf

Well, unlike the Lord of the Rings, the wizards are humans. In Lord of the Rings the wizards were powerful beings that were brought into human form.

The most powerful profession: Lore & Continuity Designer (ex. Ree Soesbee). They write the world into being. They shape the very fabric of the Mists! (I personally suspect they use whatever magic was contained within the Staff of the Mists….I’m thinking they either sent Jeff Grubb or John Stumme to retrieve it after it was tossed into the sulfur at Hallowed Point).

Well more than likely Lore and Continuity Designers are immune to the yellow haze effect and could, therefore, have been standing at the bottom of the Hallowed Point waiting for us to drop it down to them.

It does seem like they would be at major odds with a Chronomancer though. I mean the ability to reshape mass versus the ability to reshape time, we only need someone to reshape space and we have the new Holy Trinity of Guild Wars.

Narcemus.1348:

Well, unlike the Lord of the Rings, the wizards are humans. In Lord of the Rings the wizards were powerful beings that were brought into human form.

Lord of the Rings was just the example I thought most people could relate. We could also talk about DnD and people like Elminister and Kelben Blackstaff.

Oglaf.1074:

“Wizards” will always be more powerful, when you think about it. They have the ability to manipulate reality like conjuring up a tornado of fire from thin air. No matter how good you are at swinging that sword around, I just don’t see that being at the same scale of “power” as being able to wield magic.

Like Lord of the Rings: none of the “physical” heroes ever come close to the power of the “magical” ones, i.e Aragorn vs. Gandalf

Well the GW universe has thief with shadow steps, with the blink of an eye a thief could jump to you and pierce your throat with a dagger. Also warriors and engineers have rifles. They might not be all that precise or reliable during that time, but still one masterfully aimed shot could kill a mage before he get’s to use his spells.

GW1 also had it’s fair share of powerful non-magic users. Turai Ossa for example defeated Palawa Joko, without any magic. Shiro could possibley also count, yet he does also use magic, mostly out out of combat though.

I think it really depends on the person and circumstances, hard to say who is the most powerful.

I don’t know what you consider “powerful” but in my book it is all about what they can do. It does not matter that a single bullet fells a “Wizard” caught unaware because said “Wizard” can still move mountains and stuff, which no “Warrior” or “Thief” ever could.

I cannot count the number of stories in which a powerful warrior (read: fighter of mundane weapons like swords, axes, hammers, shields, and bows) defeats a powerful wizard in one on one combat – and the wizard is not caught unaware.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I cannot count the number of stories in which a powerful warrior (read: fighter of mundane weapons like swords, axes, hammers, shields, and bows) defeats a powerful wizard in one on one combat – and the wizard is not caught unaware.

How many of them are not Conan the Barbarian?

Actually, I had completely forgotten about Conan the Barbarian.

Mind you, I’m thinking not only of fantasy stories but also ancient folklore (such as Beowulf who, while not fighting wizards, fought monsters strong enough to kill 20 armed men with ease without any magical hocus pocus unlike the pansy Greek heroes).

Well, Beowulf was Swedish so…

:D

@Konig. I think part of that is the fact that magic-users are traditionally villains while knights are good. you know, “The virtuous knight slew the wicked witch!” and it wouldn’t make for a very good folktale if it ended with “The virtuous knight had his eyes impaled on toothpicks and placed in a margarita. Afterwards the wicked witch went back to seeing if children’s bones made better bread dough.”

There’s also the fact that a lot of these stories portray the magic-user as very powerful to begin with and that the powers of goodness (love, hope, gas stoves, abstinence from pre-marital sex, etc.) will always triumph over evil’s baked goods in the long run.

my point, i suppose, is that a tall tree catches much wind. the wicked witch has probably baked a hundred knights at 350* until it reached an internal temperature of 210* before one showed up who was ‘purer’ than the rest (and therefore he took too long to bake and managed to stab her baffled face with the pointy end of her oven thermometer).

Many stories depict warriors or knights as leaders, giving them a kind of military and political power. While sometimes wizards are leaders, it’s still mostly warriors. Maybe most wizards are introverts?
Also, the more technological advanced Tyria get’s, the more can the non-magical professions keep up with the mages. An engineer for example can do many of the things an elementalist does.

And eventually engineers and warriors merge into the profession of Commando and they hunt down elementalists with their helicopters, sniper rifles, and bombs.

As Oglof said, you have to define power. But i would imagine an an army at the disposale of a powerful warrior might qualify as power.

So a powerful mage may be able to do incredible things just as a powerful commander may also be able to do other incredible things. less powerful mages are less impressive just as less powerful warriors are also less impressive.

I don’t usually fall into the camp of ‘every class can be equaly powerful’ but from what I see in GW lore, this may be the case. Looking at the nations, the charr were only beaten by a nation backed by the power of 6 gods. Otgher nations embrace magic but the charr shun it for the most part and are still very powerful. And the members of destinies edge all seem to be formidible in their own way. To quote Odyssius in the movie Acilles, “We all play with the gifts the gods give us”.

Akbaroth.2861:

my point, i suppose, is that a tall tree catches much wind. the wicked witch has probably baked a hundred knights at 350* until it reached an internal temperature of 210* before one showed up who was ‘purer’ than the rest (and therefore he took too long to bake and managed to stab her baffled face with the pointy end of her oven thermometer).

How many hedgewitches do you imagine an evil warlard will have skinned alive before he is finally defeated by that same pure soul?

It has to be Elementalists or Guardians out of the 8 professions we have. An Elementalist can freeze someone solid with no water around them, how can you even fight that? And Guardians can block everything, that’s why they take 2nd place. But out of all the professions that were ever thought of, Chronomancer would take it. If you’re about to kill them, they can just reverse time until they beat you. That’s even stronger than controlling the elements.

Mage type classes can move mountains and cause huge amounts of destruction. A Warrior or Ranger are like those dynasty warriors heroes that can wipe out a thousand or so mooks in 15 minutes.

A mage can prepare for a battle and do massive amounts of damage to the army with flung spells, but I imagine lorewise a mage would get tired and need to rest sooner than the more physical guys. A warrior just picks up his sword and wanders around the battle field and calls it tuesday, and could do it practically all day.

Army vs Army I would imagine the physical guys would be more like a big sustain dps, mages would be more burst. A mage would do more over a short period of time, a warrior would do more over a longer period.

1v1 It probably depends on how long the mage has to prepare.

Greiger.7092:

Mage type classes can move mountains and cause huge amounts of destruction. A Warrior or Ranger are like those dynasty warriors heroes that can wipe out a thousand or so mooks in 15 minutes.

A mage can prepare for a battle and do massive amounts of damage to the army with flung spells, but I imagine lorewise a mage would get tired and need to rest sooner than the more physical guys. A warrior just picks up his sword and wanders around the battle field and calls it tuesday, and could do it practically all day.

Army vs Army I would imagine the physical guys would be more like a big sustain dps, mages would be more burst. A mage would do more over a short period of time, a warrior would do more over a longer period.

1v1 It probably depends on how long the mage has to prepare.

It depends on the universe, magic is an unlimited source in Tyria. (as of right now) :O

Unlimited in the sense of Mana, yes, but it is very limited in the sense of how it can be used. No individual can do everything through magic because of the bloodstones. Pretty much magic was first unleashed, everyone was waaaaay OP and everyone was dying because of it so they toned things down a little bit.

Narcemus.1348:

And eventually engineers and warriors merge into the profession of Commando and they hunt down elementalists with their helicopters, sniper rifles, and bombs.

Time traveling Commandos, so we are back to chronomancers again.

Narcemus.1348:

Unlimited in the sense of Mana, yes, but it is very limited in the sense of how it can be used. No individual can do everything through magic because of the bloodstones. Pretty much magic was first unleashed, everyone was waaaaay OP and everyone was dying because of it so they toned things down a little bit.

Yeah I just meant like an Elementalist can keep casting fireballs till he’s blue in the face. There’s no recharge period because there is an infinite amount of mana to draw power from.

Lore-wise, I’d have to argue Mesmer. What other profession has the ability to get inside of someone else’s thoughts? Explosions, guns, etc – nothing’s as scary as a person what can control what. you. think.

Not to mention that Snaff could have “mindkittened” Kralky all day, seeing as he only failed cause the tanks failed to keep aggro.