Guild Wars 2

So I’m looking for a class that is, “Worth it”, now I know everyone’s definition of, “Worth”, is different, but to me it’s a class that has a strong presence in the, “Meta”, a class that fits a certain criteria such as the one I am looking for needs, sustain/damage, useful utility, and able to be used in the hands of someone with an, aggressive playstyle.

The reason as to why I am looking is that I am not one who buys gems to turn into gold, or someone who has the gold to throw around on a whim to a new character, but someone who pretty much is starting from the ground up, and will be farming this or that, completing certain achieves ect. for gear, ect.

As to my thoughts on a character and the areas of the game that I will more than likely be invested in, such as WvW (Roaming/Small group.), Fractals, and then mostly open-world PvE, with the rare Raid for, “Raid-Only” items. I feel classes such as, Warrior/Ele/Mes may fit the bill, and have some builds that only differ in traits/specs more so than gear swapping.

So I was wondering what everyone’s thoughts where, and if you play one of these classes, have you found it to be, “Worth” it?

I found these following professions to have a leaning edge when it comes to mains:

Guardian (heavy): Good deal of supportive abilities while also being able to do good damage on their own, especially when it comes to consistent placement of burning or outright raw power.

Ranger (medium): Pets, versatility between distance and up-close combat, spirits provide benefits to you + allies (even more so traited), able to handle general trash with some experience while going from A to B.

Engineer (medium): Flexibility at the cost of having to manipulate your utility skills often (6, 7, 8, 9, 0) for the right task; consistent at bleeds, overall supportive but somewhat lacking in the raid/WvW department

Necromancer (light): Solo durability, minions, wells, elite reaper provides some PvE benefit with shroud — but is great at creating/spreading conditions

Mesmer (light): Support, portals, boon collection/sharing at the cost of a steeper learning curve

Elementalist (light): Able to switch to the right attunements for the right moments on the fly, providing support, damage, AoE and opponent hindering; moderate learning curve but not Mesmer steep; most efficiency at the cost of being a glass cannon in big content, but sturdiness can be worked in for general PvE/meta.

Warrior and Thief take a little getting used to, and if you’re not an experienced player it can be a little like the kittening, but for overall standing and “mainworthy” I suggest you give each profession a try, and stick to what you feel is right for you.

I heard necro is good in wvw (based on all the crying for an epidemic nerf), but for roaming necro struggles, due to poor mobility and sustain (I would guess, I don’t actually play wvw).
Open world PVE, necro is fine here, most are anyway but necro is even more so as it’s very survivable and has pets to take aggro for you.
Fractals, necro is also good here, I’ve prevented quite a few PUG wipes with my necro (mostly in nightmare fractal).
Raids, whilst you can do raids with necro and the new benchmark for necro is decent, they are still not taken (for now…).

In PvE, typically speaking, the amount of damage a class outputs and the amount of utility they bring are typically inversely proportional. For instance, mesmers can bring a ton of support with perma quickness, reflects, pulls, etc. but they don’t do a ton of DPS even when fully geared and traited for it. Classes that do a lot of damage like daredevils and elementalists don’t typically have a ton of utility to offer. Not that these classes can’t provide some utility, but they take it at the expense of their damage and other classes can provide likely better support with less impact to their role.

Classes that occupy the middle ground—what you seem to want—are rangers, engineers, warriors, and guardians. Warriors, while doing a lot of sustained damage, also bring damage buffs for their allies with a full 25 stacks of might, banners, and empower allies. Rangers can occupy a variety of roles from condi ranger (DPS) to condi druid (less DPS, but great support) to healing druid (full support). Power for rangers is okay too, probably better for fractals than raids though. Guardians do a lot of damage and can change their utilities to bring support like protection, stability, reflects, more aegis, condition clear (again at the expense of damage, but the option is definitely there). I know less about engineers, so I’ll leave that to those who do play engineers.

You can check http://qtfy.eu/builds/ for builds for raids that typically also work for fractals and DPS benchmarks.

For WvW roaming, I’ve seen great roamers with a variety of builds and a variety of classes do great. It honestly will just depend on how your small group wants to run. Druids stack might well and have access to smoke fields and a bit of healing. Warriors can do a lot of burst. Engineers have a ton of sustain that, with some stealth from mesmers and healing from another class, can make them virtually invincible. Guardians provide a lot of support and can have good burst if you combo CCs well with test of faith (or burn guardian).

With all this in mind, if you’re looking for an “aggressive playstyle”, I would probably advise warrior. However, I would like to add that each class plays very differently and just FEELS different. While on paper, classes like warrior meet most of your criteria, you might find that another classes simply feels better to play for you personally.

I didn’t mention revenants because they currently don’t have a solid place in the raid meta, but would do fine for fractals and open world. Necros provide good damage, but don’t really roam well in WvW. All classes really work for open world, but support-heavy classes like mesmers take longer than others to kill things (take it from a mesmer main).

My post above really focuses on group content like fractals, raids, and roaming.

The thing to keep in mind is all of this applies AT THIS TIME. There are regular balance updates, usually around 4 times a year, that usually have significant changes on what classes are Meta at any given time.

I’m glad you’ve made some contributions, because it’s important to have multiple points of view here. But what I’ve basically stated from prior, “try all the classes, and stick to the one that works well for you” still applies. What works for one might not work for another, and people might have different views about certain classes.

I agree at the suggestion of the warrior/guardian/ranger/engineer as they are indeed more “support while providing decent DPS”, I avoided thief for the fact that the strictly offensive playstyle is at the cost of mitigation and support, so you have to be well-adjusted as to how combat works, as well as the mechanics of the profession. But I’ve seen some start up and do well with it — which is why I said what I said.

bearshaman.3421:

The thing to keep in mind is all of this applies AT THIS TIME. There are regular balance updates, usually around 4 times a year, that usually have significant changes on what classes are Meta at any given time.

idk the balance patches feel kinda meh for the duration that you have to wait, most of the stuff are a few seconds of CD less in specific modes.

Honestly, the character that is, comma, “worth it”, comma, is one that you are comfortable with. If you can move around, easily kill enemies and come out from it stronger, then you’ve found your new favourite class. Sadly, finding the right class this way might be difficult.

Rognik.2579:

Honestly, the character that is, comma, “worth it”, comma, is one that you are comfortable with. If you can move around, easily kill enemies and come out from it stronger, then you’ve found your new favourite class. Sadly, finding the right class this way might be difficult.

This is what I’m getting at as well. The meta changes, but what class you are good with doesn’t.

A couple pieces of advice from a relatively normal (not uber, not terribad) player who has tried a lot of different characters in a lot of iterations:

Mesmer and Engineer both require a LOT of attention. They are not ones you can run out in the world and melt things without a lot of input by the player. In the early levels, they’re ok, but as you get proficient, they become a lot more involved to play well. If you’re unable to proficiently play them, they will rot on a shelf. I am speaking from personal experience here.

On the other hand, none of the classes are faceroll easy, either. I have found that for my play style, elementalist and thief, with a salting of guardian and ranger work well for me. I do have a necro, but I mostly use her for specific dailies that appeal to her abilities and that’s it.

Caveat: I know almost nothing about warrior, so I cannot give any advice concerning that class.

So, my recommendations to you are two-fold.

First, make one of everything you can and play with them up until about level 30 before you pick which one you like the best. You can use dropped/vendor armor and weapons efficiently enough to level your character, and not have to invest a huge load of time or money into them.

Secondly, once you do pick “your” class, remember that there will be periods where you hate it. certain levels go slowly, and certain activities or zones will suck for you. Don’t give up on your character. Make another one to take a break if you like, but don’t delete your eventual main just because you hate a certain part of the game. It will get better.

Good luck to you!

I agree you should play several classes to level 30 or so to see which one you like. Leveling in this game is stupid-fast. So it’s not a big deal to start over.

But if you just want a starting point, why not go with Warrior?

Heavy armor means a lot of survivability, you have a lot of good offense for leveling quickly, they’re really easy to learn, and Warriors are currently mandatory in raid-compositions where they are used to stack Might on the party.

Lots of weapon options to play with too. For what you’re looking for, you might as well make one of your main characters a Warrior and see how you like it.

Warrior and Thief sound like strong options to me. I’m not really familiar with WvW, but Warriors do seem to have some roaming strength there, while Thieves are great at ganking and disengaging. The thief’s initiative mechanic allows for more aggressive play than other classes (No cooldown on weapon attacks), and, while they’re one of the squishiest classes in the game, they can use blinds, evades, and interrupts to squeeze quite a lot of survivability out of their tiny healthpool. I don’t think they have a role in raids.

Warriors… I don’t know if they have a role in WvW, because I don’t do a lot in that game mode (I just grab my guardian and run around in the train). But they have incredible damage for their survivability – trait Defense, and you are tough as hell to take down even in full berzerker gear. I have a charracter of every class, and in PvE, at least, encounters that provide a difficult challenge to my non-warriors are barely a speedbump to the warrior I’ve mained. Warrior also has a protected role in Fractals and Raids thanks to Phalanx Strength with Forceful Greatsword and Banners.