Guild Wars 2

Hi all, I played GW2 about 2 years ago when it first came out with friends for a while,.. got a Ranger, Mesmer, Guardian to 80. Now me and some friends are returning and I found I needed to start from scratch to get my head around the game play again. So I have now leveled a Warrior to almost 50 now and I feel like I got a good head on my shoulders once more. So now I keep going over and over in my mind, what to play? How are all the classes doing now? Some I’ve played, others not so much. This is my take on the classes thus far…

Guardian – not sure of much other than a heavy plate buffer/healer/tank, no idea how they are fairing now

Warrior – I’ve been enjoying it but friends saying they’ve been nerfed and are not as effective as they used to be, but they seem to be a melee heavy plate massive damage dealer

Thief – I keep wanting to play this one but I get frustrated about level 20ish feeling like they should be more effective and give up, but from what I read they are very heavy burst, not steady, DPS and still invaluable

Necromancer – Never played this much, got a new one to 23 and have the minion horde with me, seems fun but not gone anywhere much with it yet. Effective DPSers? not sure

Ranger – Seem fun and a blast but from what old friends tell me they are still mainly a solo PvE class because no one wants them in dungeons, more pretty and fun than effective and dangerous

Elementalist – Played one to level 18 and liked it but hated dying at every turn, deleted her. They seem like the ultimate glass cannon and if you could get your head around attunement switching they’d be great, old articles claimed they are the top ranged DPS and very effective.. but those articles are 2 years old.

Engineer – This one has always been a mystery to me. They always seemed like effective classes, if you can get past the first 40 levels or so, but I never had any idea if they were worth the time or not.

Mesmer- Used to be my favorite class, played it alot, Seem still viable and good just not sure how they are fairing these days.

I would sure appreciate if anyone can shed light on these classes so I can determine which I’d like to get back into, thank you so much!

Seabhac.6824:

Engineer – This one has always been a mystery to me. They always seemed like effective classes, if you can get past the first 40 levels or so, but I never had any idea if they were worth the time or not.

when levelling, make sure to use rocket boots and or elixir gun 4, speedy kits, and bombs w/ forceful explosives.

great all around at 80. very versatile — puts out good dps and offensive support in pve, a great nodefighter in pvp, and in wvw is best known for roaming but slick shoes can also make front line builds great. has tons of viable builds despite seemingly limited weapon choices. the main drawback is that you have to play piano more than any other class for the best builds.

“what class to play?” is a question that pops up often around here. I personally don’t think it is worth fussing over. Just play everything.

Assuming you’re interested in PvE/dungeons, here’s how things are in the current metagame as far as I’m aware:

Guardian: squishy but invaluable for defensive support (condition cleanses, aegis, protection) and projectile reflect. Pretty much always in demand, assuming they know what they’re doing. Mid-to-low DPS on their own iirc.

Warrior: relatively simple to play and with good durability, great offensive support (banners, might stacking if using the Phalanx Strength buff). Difficult to kitten-up, sdo popular. Lower mid-tier DPS.

Thief: most valued for ability to stealth the party and allow skips (mostly CM and Arah, also nice for TA up and a few other places). Amazing single-target damage, and good support when dealing with trash mobs thanks to pistol 5 blinds as well as blasting fields with shortbow. Top tier DPS, but squishy as heck.

Necromancer: pretty decent DPS (though certainly not with minions build, you’ll want something like wells instead), but disdained in meta parties due to the class’ current lack of party support. They don’t offer anything that another class can’t do better, and it’s probably not helped by the way some PUGs indiscriminately spam fear and mess things up during runs.

Ranger: mid-tier DPS, actually offers some nice party support with frost spirit and spotter. Distrusted in PUGs due to again tendency of bad rangers to 1. camp longbow 2. mess up mob pulls/aggro by not controlling their pets, but a good ranger is a good thing to have in your party.

Elementalist: top DPS, extremely in demand for dungeon runs for both the damage and the utility (might stacking usually falls to them, and ice bow 4 is amazing damage on bosses). Definitely super squishy. There’s 2 different set-ups that you’ll see a lot in dungeons, and that is staff ele (mostly staying on fire attunement spamming lava font for sick damage, the easiest to play) and scepter/dagger ele (much more complicated rotation but much better ability to stack might, DO NOT STEAL THEIR LIGHTNING HAMMER).

Engineer: third best DPS assuming you know what you’re doing, which is easier said than done. Incredible versatility & ability to cover up most gaps/weakness in party composition (can provide might, stealth, projectile block/reflect, condition clears, burst heals) as well as maintain 15-20 stacks of vulnerability on enemies (amounting to 15-20% increase in party damage). Involves a lot of juggling kits and utilities to optimize however, and you don’t see a lot of them around – while a number will do stuff like camp flamethrower throughout the dungeon which is pretty useless.

Mesmer: DPS highly dependent on length of fight and amount of reflects needed. They’re most valued for their utilities (portal, feedback, some mantras, timewarp, etc) which help runs go faster/smoother.