Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

Quick little background blerb:
I used to play GW2 a lot after it came out, loved it, but left after fractals came out – it was a lot of “you don’t know how to use this exploit in this dungeon,” or “you play that class so we don’t want you in the party because you aren’t full zerker” and basically the multiplayer aspect of the game became no fun for me anymore. Real life stuff came up and I slowly just stopped playing.

With the expansion coming out though, I just bought a brand new account and trying to start fresh. But everything in the build system is different! That being said, which classes/builds are the most fun to play right now? I’d rather avoid the warrior zerker meta if that’s still a thing, but open to other warrior and class builds!

So basically, I’m looking for some end game builds for classes that are fun to play!

Thanks in advance.

This is kind of a big question.

Every class is fun to play to some degree, depending on the content you are playing.

I had a ton of fun with an interrupting warrior: hammer and mace/mace or mace/shield. you can rack up a ton of interrupts and a ton of confusion if you trait right. in mobs nothing gets a chance to hit you, in pvp everyone will be annoyed to the point of avoidance, and in dungeons you will be able to control bosses with ease.

If you prefer a support role, you can trait your banners to heal those in range and go with longbow for a lot of burning, aoe might bursting, and heavy damage all at once.

avoid meta-zerk pugs in the LFG and join a good guild that’s open to ideas instead of grinding out a game. I run a guild just like that and if you’re in the market look me up in game. we train.

Sorry I just realized how broad my query was.

I’m looking to run mostly PvE for now, maybe WvW later (I’m not really much of a PvP guy, I dabble in it occasionally but it’s not my thing). I really enjoy playing builds with lots of AoE, just dive into the middle of mobs and melt things (thereby need some degree of tankiness – or at least some means of not dying immediately). So if there is currently a class/build that does that very well (by that I mean I can do that vs tough content in dungeons and whatnot) I want to try that out.

Back in the day condition builds used to do that well, but the problem became that condition classes weren’t very good against bosses so weren’t “viable” in dungeons. Wonder if that changed?

conditions have changed, mainly that they effectively removed stacks for most damaging conditions. what this means is that all of your own condition damage will actually apply, and no longer gets overwritten by other players.

It sounds like you’d benefit from a guardian. spec for burning and symbols. you can wade in, drop tons of damage and vuln, keep blind up, and keep everything on fire. traited correctly, you can even spread might stacks on crits, and it takes very little healing to keep everyone else alive.

Awesome thanks I’ll look into guardians! Wanted to make a norn character anyway, they don’t really look right if they aren’t warriors or guardians lol

Tiggers.3890:

I really enjoy playing builds with lots of AoE, just dive into the middle of mobs and melt things (thereby need some degree of tankiness – or at least some means of not dying immediately). So if there is currently a class/build that does that very well (by that I mean I can do that vs tough content in dungeons and whatnot) I want to try that out.

I would also recommend necromancer or engineer since you are interested in condition damage.

A necromancer has a high health pool and basically three different health pools to work from which adds significantly to their survivability.
Search for Nemesis on Youtube.

An engineer has the potential for high sustained condition damage over time and control.
Search for Sesshi SC on Youtube.

Both are examples of the potential each class has to offer.

Probably the best (if you want AoE+condi, as well as pure DPS) would be condi-speced fire-attuned staff ele (dagger-dagger/focus isn’t bad either, but it’s a lot glassier)
The dagger-dagger/focus build is HORRIBLE for pvp- trust me, I’ve tried it. Way too glassy. It might not be bad for wvw though, if you stayed in a big zerg.
here’s a video of the dagger-dagger/focus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH-aB4mwAOk

For AoE, DPS, tankiness, and some condi, staff necro is pretty good
For more tankiness, I’d recommend warrior or guardian, but they don’t really get much for conditions or aoe (and warr tends to fall into the “get zerker! use GS!” camp.)

I second both the necro and the staff ele. Minion Master necro is incredibly fun to level up with – your minions take most of the damage for you while you spam AOEs with the staff and get all the credit. I main a Soldier necro with traits focused on Shroud, so I’m super tanky, but it takes a while for me kill anything if I’m solo.

Staff ele is also a lot of fun, but I don’t know that much about class mechanics. I pretty much just run around burning everything in casual PvE.