Guild Wars 2

Alright so I played GW2 back when it just released and spent a lot of time doing structured PvP but not much else. I’m looking to come back to the game and spend some time working through the PvE side this time. In just about every game I play I’m a tank of some sort and enjoy that play style. I know one of the attractions to GW2 is the lack of the trinity, so there aren’t true tanks or healers but I know some professions fit these roles more than others.

For PvE is there an actual tank during dungeons or raid type content? If so what professions play this role most effectively?

Dungeons? Haha a berserker geared character can solo them. So no tanks.

Raids eh I suppose some can tank but IMO even they are hybrids. Whether condi tanks are true tanks is up for debate. Thats like calling a berserker with 2000 toughness a tank – I just call it OP.

In terms of what classes does it best I dont know the raid meta. Someone else will surely write a 1000 word essay on it.

In raids chronomancer is the tank, simply because of his crazy utility (quickness, invulni and alacrity for party). Be sure to check current build at metabattle.com and get good practice with it, as chronomancer is not the easiest class to play.

Generally in raid pugs no one will want your tank unless you’re chronomancer. If you want to be something else and tank (which is possible) you’ll need a group of friends or a guild that’s not a raid meta cult, and that may prove a challenge.

But if you find such group then necromancer, guardian, revenant and elementalist can all prove to be very viable tanks. I most cases using their Heart of Thorns elite specs. Heck even the ranger can tank some as druid.

Since some raids are quite serious, be prepared in terms of gear (full ascended preferred), build, and raid boss mechanics. You will need all 3 in most cases.

Thanks for the replies.

So if we were to try and predict the future, any thoughts on what might change with the new elite specs coming out? My aim would be to play a beefy class, not glass cannon. Doesn’t have to tank, but be durable. At this point I have an engineer, guardian, and warrior leveled up from my first go.

The next xpac is not exactly tank-friendly, I would dare say most of them are squishier then HoT counterparts, though traits can always do some turn around on that.

But if i were to point out guys who can get tanky among PoF specs then it would be:

1. soulbeast – hands down a real beast in defense if you spec it for. Access to resistance, 33% less condi damage taken if you’re under effects of protection trait, new skills that act like signet of stone (no power damage taken for their duration), respectable healing, and very strong boon game. Also quite a lot of good stuff for party play. Defo the #1 tank candidate among new specs in this xpac if you ask me.

2. Weaver. All this talk about it being more offensive ele and brawler, but if you look closer you’ll notice he’s been given a different build path as well. One chucked with self barriers, superspeed and losing condies like crazy.

3. Spellbreaker – not your typical tank to be sure. But may be quite a fun one. The core warrior already has good sustain by default.

This guy gets his tank title more via negating enemy’s big blows with his Full Counter, and crippling their dps output by ripping their boons off’em, inflicting some slows and improved projectile hate compared to base warr.

Basically spellbreaker is about timing your full counter right, and then keeping their damage in check by not letting them spread wings, rather then becoming crazy damage reducing juggernaut himself.

4. Mirage + Scourge. These guys are not your first pick for tanks on the surface. Mirage is generally…nobody knows what. But seems to be very focused on blurring through enemy attacks, so that may make him a tank. If chronomancer wasn’t the top dog there already at least….who knows. maybe balance will one day come to mesmer…hopefully…before I die of old age…

Scourge is generally considered a downgrade to necromancer’s tankability. He is to be squishiest of all necro paths (core, reaper, scourge). However, the reason i put him here is because of his stat builds. Scourge will naturally seek high healing power and condi damage for his builds. But thing is …he’s a necro. That means 19+ hp baseline. So among these stats sets most come with toughness in’em. Lot of tougness. More over one boon necromancer was never short on is protection.

High toughness, strong barriers (because of high healing power and high baseline hp pool). Inadvertedly that does make a tank….one that can also dish respectable condi damage as well.

Where does guardian fit into all of this? The new spec seems strange.

I’m not that well acquainted with fire brand, but from first glance…he’s not a real tanker. Mantras encourge staying in the backline, as do the tomes. He seems way more focused on burning and boon share then being the frontliner.

Something that I never seem to see being talked about is Toughness.

IF your talking about tanking in the sense of holding aggro. Any class can tank. just stack toughness. Mobs gravitate towards enemies with the most toughness.

Staying alive is a whole other story.

In my opinion a minion necro speced with toughness could tank very well. With that trait that increases your toughness per minion alive… You could be very durable.

Cortesan.8615:

Thanks for the replies.

So if we were to try and predict the future, any thoughts on what might change with the new elite specs coming out? My aim would be to play a beefy class, not glass cannon. Doesn’t have to tank, but be durable. At this point I have an engineer, guardian, and warrior leveled up from my first go.

If you want the beefy class.

Necro…

Cortesan.8615:

Where does guardian fit into all of this? The new spec seems strange.

Firebrand is a group support spec, functionally similar to a Support spec’d Ele, but cone targeted. It also has multiple sources of short quickness.

So toughness equals aggro essentially and past that it is up to skills and utilities to provide survivability? So does that lean more towards avoiding damage all together or being able to soak it and recover? Or does it really matter? One of the replies talked about spell breaker having some skills that would allow for situational negation and boom stripping being a viable survivability tactic.

Cortesan.8615:

So toughness equals aggro essentially and past that it is up to skills and utilities to provide survivability? So does that lean more towards avoiding damage all together or being able to soak it and recover? Or does it really matter? One of the replies talked about spell breaker having some skills that would allow for situational negation and boom stripping being a viable survivability tactic.

Talking raids, the one with highest thoughness will be the tank (in the fights where a tank is needed). Chrono is atm the best at this, due to the fact that they also have alot of evades/blocks/distortions. So they can combine face-tanking the small hits with evading/etc the big hits. Learning when to face-tank and when to evade/block is a part of it.

Notice that not all fights use a tank. Or that the tank is picked in abit different way (sloth).

Thanks for all the replies. Was very helpful!