Back at playing gw2
If you’re talking about PvP as in sPvP, you already have the best gear on all your characters (unless you want to play one of two sets which require gold to unlock).
If you’re talking about PvP as in WvW, your gear won’t make a significant difference unless you’re in small/guild/solo/duo roaming.
For PvE Dungeons, play what you want for enjoyment, play whatever looks more fun.
If you care at all about the current in-game Dungeon meta (which is liable to change at any given patch, with or without forewarning), classes with their respective group attributes are as follows:
All classes assumed to be running full Berserker (or Assassin’s, if applicable):
Warrior: Easy damage. Not particularly the best, but definitely easy-mode to play. High health pool, moderate damage. Easy playstyle. Lots of mobility and evades, when necessary. For party play, can provide near 25 stacks of might (25 is possible) for the entire party, in addition to providing things such as ~300 Power, and 150 Precision/Ferocity to the group.
Mesmer: has the potential to be very strong, however is very, very weak. In the best scenario’s the DPS is phenomenal, rivaling the current top-DPS professions. However, the majority of fights will not be that scenario, due to enemies being capable of hitting things. The playstyle is extremely reactive. It’s extremely skill-intense due to being forced to watch and react according to enemy animations. Memorization and reactive response are necessary. Note: This is not mechanically intense, this is skill intense. Does not provide anything unique to a speedrun group except Time Warp.
Guardian: is a very strong “support”. Capable of providing Reflects, Projectile Destruction (weaker than Mesmer, but more reliable), Aegis, Blinds (weaker than Thief) and some Healing.
I’d go through the rest, but I just wanted to give you an idea.
For quick bio’s of the other professions:
Thief: One of the highest DPS in the game, also provides mass stealth. Also has easy access to blasts, allowing for mass Healing, Might stacks, Stealth and more.
Elementalist: One of the highest DPS in the game, also provides Elemental Weapons to boost ally DPS in addition to being capable of providing ~18 Might and Permanent Fury to the party. 25 Might is possible both in and out of combat with the proper setup.
Necromancer: Extremely greedy, can only provide high DPS and some Vulnerability.
Engineer: Decent stealth, good blasting (can provide roughly 18 Might or 14s of Stealth), can apply 25 stacks of Vulnerability in addition to having good DPS.
Ranger: Can provide Spotter (Precision), Frost Spirit (7% party-wide damage boost), and decent DPS. Also has a blast with an AoE Buff skill.
So in a group, you will want:
Warrior for Banners (one or two), Phalanx Strength and Empower Ally (PS and EA are optional, although EA is highly recommended).
Elementalist for Elemental Weapons and good Might/Fury blasting. (Hence why PS is not necessary. EA is hard to grab without sacrificing Warrior DPS, although it’s a worthy trade, in my opinion.)
Engineer for Vulnerability stacking (25 Vulnerability is a 25% damage increase). Additional blasts can speed up a run.
Thief for high DPS, stealth and other field blasts.
Ranger for Frost Spirit and Spotter.
However, with a team like that, each profession will easily have access to at least one blast, meaning you can skip trash extremely fast with Lightning Field blast (Swiftness) followed by Smoke Field blast (Stealth).
Depending on the dungeon, you may opt to get a Guardian or Mesmer for their Projectile manipulation abilities (Reflection and Destruction).
The Thief may not be necessary due to Engineer also having access to a Smoke Field combined with lots of blasts (both by the Engineer and combined with everyone else in the group).
The Elementalist may not be necessary due to all the blasts readily available along with Fire Fields (Ranger, Engineer, and Warrior have Fire Fields).
Of course, this is simply speedrun theorycrafting (and my opinion, at that). Guardians are typically always brought to round off a team and ensure people don’t die. Also, the average player is under the fallacy that heavy armor makes a significant difference in the game.
Wow, that’s quite the answer there. I forgot that the sPvP didn’t need the crafted gear, so thanks for reminding me of it.
It also made my decision on which class to keep on playing as my alt. I really like the beefy support roll for dungeons, so I will keep on leveling my Guardian.
Many thanks!
Just remember that the speed clear meta and optimal team composition are a niche of the pve.
I pug dungeons every day and nobody cares about the gear others are wearing nor the class they are playing.
The only exception are arah and very high level fractals, where gearcheck are often enforced.
Known as Reegar Else, Linda Else, Xiana Else and Thorgall Breakstone
Guard would be more useful than mesmers as they bring similar, maybe better support, and better damage. Mesmers function more as force multipliers in zergs or the ultimate power-based duelling class – they’re not effective in terms of dps nor survivability in dungeons relative to most other options.
Just remember that the speed clear meta and optimal team composition are a niche of the pve.
I pug dungeons every day and nobody cares about the gear others are wearing nor the class they are playing.
The only exception are arah and very high level fractals, where gearcheck are often enforced.
Gearchecks are never typically enforced unless the groups are bad.
I do Arah and High Level Fractals daily (or at least, I have until very recently due to school and life kicking me out of parties).
In Arah, gearchecks are typically not enforced because you can tell who the problem child is inside a run based on what skills, weapons, and actions are done for each section of a dungeon.
In high level Fractals, you ask that everyone has the appropriate AR (45, 70, etc) and assume that everyone does. If you’re running in Fractal50 and someone does not have 70 AR, they will die almost every time they enter combat, and thus get kicked. In Fractal49 (and lower), it’s possible to survive without having the appropriate AR, which usually results in dying during bossfights if you miss a dodge. If you don’t have the appropriate AR, you will typically call out to not get revived.
If you’re doing extremely bad, you might get kicked (if you’re running in pseudo speed clear Arah or high level Fractal runs).
Thanks for the answers!
This week I will focus on some dungeon runs, so I can get the feeling back like in the old days. I will continue to level my guardian aswell. ARAH and Fractal sounds really interesting. As I understand those two dungeons, the party will do some gear checking, so I will keep that in mind.
Is there a good build for PvE (dungeon) guardian? I don’t wanna slack, and as I’m quite new to the guardian class, I would like some help/examples.
Thanks guys!
Because of how relatively easy PvE is, people will normally recommend using full berserker speedclear setups for PvE guards – their support skills have far more effect than any support stats anyway. The Guard class forums should have it pinned somewhere – it’s the one that has Virtue of Justice refresh on kill, blind on activation, might on activation and vulnerability on blind traits, and the hammer/greatsword weaponset.