Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

I am trying to figure out a main class for pve. I want to play only 1 profession non stop that I can use for every aspect of pve including fractals, raids and general open world.

Last but not least I really enjoy soloing harder contents and I would absolutely try my luck at fighting harder mobs now and then like champions…

I know that open world will never really pose an issue but for raids, I know that Mesmer and Druids are pretty wanted in raids, however I find the Mesmer/chronomancer bit lacklustre in personal dps when soloing so I started looking at other classes…

Could you guys please help me out?

In general I like classes with a decent pace / fluid feeling flow to them, decent personal dps and self sufficiency while still being a wanted pick in raids / fractals. Mobility wise I don’t have much demands in terms of leaps or jumps if I have access to perma swiftness I am happy and any leaps are just bonuses
Oh yeah, should note I enjoy having low cool downs as I hate having a lot of downtime…
Consistency, solo potential and viability in raids / fractals are my main concern

I’m open to any class except for Mesmer (solo is kinda boring and tedious), Guardian (don’t know much about it but hammer feels slowish without quickness from Mesmer).

Ranger/Druid is a good option. They are top for healing (thus raids) but they are decent at just about everything else, and having a pet that can tank for you helps when you want to solo more difficult content. Other possibilities include a minion master necromancer, possibly a guardian or warrior. not sure about anything else.

Based on your criteria, I recommend warrior. They’re popular in group PvE for their ability to stack and share might, among other things. They are also among the stronger solo open world classes, in my opinion. And because they can greatly reduce weapon swap cooldown, they also meet your criteria for being less bound by cooldowns. They also tend to deal more damage than any of the pet classes, if I’m not mistaken (I haven’t tried ranger yet myself).

Gotta say the first thing on my mind was Revenant. They’re wanted, good solo, and solid pace/flow. Rev seems to have generic meta – fits all sizes – herald/assassin that works well for all aspects. Easy to play but not for the lazy either.

Check this site out, it’s what dominates how you’re expected to play in fractals/raids in this game. http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

Metas changes over time, so it’s hard to follow that as well but can give some ideas of what you want to do and how broad every class is in opportunities. Best advice I ever could give is just try to choose something that’s conceptually fun as possible. We all got different playstyles, and what looks good in theory or paper doesn’t necessarily fit you until you’ve tried it.

Warrior and rev

Hey Spie, i play all the 9 professsions with all specializations in gw2. I main my engineer which is the first class i made in early access of the original game. But as far as one consistent class for pve, if i would have to pick 1 class, it would be the ranger/druid.

Simply because for open world PVE, you don’t really need to melee, Yes melee tend to do more DPS, but thats personal preference, at the end of the day, all you need to do in open world pve is to survive and kill the monster/boss, and ranger does well with that with either using LB/GS or Staff/GS or even dual range weapons Staff/LB(not too fond of this, as it lacks certain traits and the feel is just off).

You can use ranger/druid in dungeons, fractals, raids….know that they may have different builds and you may have to use different armor sets and weapons (ex. zerker in dungeons/fotm, zealots in raids), but its a very consistent class, which has a good amount of range with longbow at 1500 range(technically hits up to 1800), while having good melee sets like GS and sword/dagger.

The pet isn’t the best unique class mechanic but bears can solo tank champions, as long as you heal them(works well with druid healing), so you can solo stuff in open world, while being good overall class and needed in all facets of PVE.

TL’DR: i main engi, but i’d rather play ranger if i can only pick 1 class.

As a dark horse choice: Reaper (Necromancer). I’ve been playing a LOT of Rev, Necro, and Ranger over the past couple weeks (getting map comp for Gifts of Exploration), and I was surprised at how darned GOOD the Reaper is once you get used to using it. When I first made my Necro, it was just for organized WvW raids, and I never used it in PVE. Now, with very little build tweaking, I can handle stuff in PVE with ease that I struggle with using the Rev and Ranger.

A major strength the Necromancer has is durability. A necro has higher base health than any class except the warrior, AND has Death Shroud on top of that. Add in a lot of potential health recovery from Life Drain and it’s really hard to go down. Plus, a power build can kill most mobs pretty easily. I’m not all that familiar with condition damage builds, but I know they are in high demand for high-scale fractals and are an acceptable class for raids.

If I had to pick only 1 class to play exclusively, it would be my Reaper. That being said, I think you are foolish to limit yourself to only one character. I enjoy all of them too much to limit myself to only 1.

J envy.5270:

Hey Spie, i play all the 9 professsions with all specializations in gw2. I main my engineer which is the first class i made in early access of the original game. But as far as one consistent class for pve, if i would have to pick 1 class, it would be the ranger/druid.

Simply because for open world PVE, you don’t really need to melee, Yes melee tend to do more DPS, but thats personal preference, at the end of the day, all you need to do in open world pve is to survive and kill the monster/boss, and ranger does well with that with either using LB/GS or Staff/GS or even dual range weapons Staff/LB(not too fond of this, as it lacks certain traits and the feel is just off).

You can use ranger/druid in dungeons, fractals, raids….know that they may have different builds and you may have to use different armor sets and weapons (ex. zerker in dungeons/fotm, zealots in raids), but its a very consistent class, which has a good amount of range with longbow at 1500 range(technically hits up to 1800), while having good melee sets like GS and sword/dagger.

The pet isn’t the best unique class mechanic but bears can solo tank champions, as long as you heal them(works well with druid healing), so you can solo stuff in open world, while being good overall class and needed in all facets of PVE.

TL’DR: i main engi, but i’d rather play ranger if i can only pick 1 class.

Hey, I’m actually very intrigued by this post as I have mained engineer for 2 years now but I do find them to be a bit undesired in general so it made me consider re-rolling…

Very curious to see how an engineer main recommends to pick up druid instead
Any particular reason why specifically druid?

Revenant and elementalist are the most universally viable, imo. Necromancer and druid would be the runner ups, as they are the strongest defensively, but i think they are terribly boring. you can get a lot of mileage on a mesmer too if you’re really into it. the only ones i would avoid are engineer and thief. guardian / warrior tend to be pvp professions, as their dps and support is outclassed in higher end game modes, but they are still fine for PvE: General.

You shouldn’t discount Guard just because of hammer… the LW3 balance changes, scepter and/or sword have become new meta, both feel faster paced than hammer. Since HoT was released, it’s PvE meta build has been the most fluid of any class: GS/LB > H/LB > H/Scep > Scep or Sw/T

AliamRationem.5172:

Based on your criteria, I recommend warrior. They’re popular in group PvE for their ability to stack and share might, among other things. They are also among the stronger solo open world classes, in my opinion. And because they can greatly reduce weapon swap cooldown, they also meet your criteria for being less bound by cooldowns. They also tend to deal more damage than any of the pet classes, if I’m not mistaken (I haven’t tried ranger yet myself).

Swapping from PS warrior from group stuff to a more solo oriented build is also less annoying than something like swapping between condi reaper and power reaper.