Hardest Profession to Level
In my experience, Mesmer. Mesmers are quite the gimmicky folk to level. They do not have large variety of weapons, and their primary focus are conditions [Confusion, Torments].
So if you don’t have a mesmer already. I would advise using the level 80 boost if you plans on doing ton of JPs that is a struggle to complete!
I feel that Thief is one of the harder classes to level, you don’t have many choices when it comes to, “AoE” attacks, except for SB and D/D “Death blossom spam”, so your mostly stuck to single target kills.
Atleast with classes like Mesmer you have clones/phantasms that can help you kill, and access to some AoE attacks so I feel Mesmer is a touch above Thief on the “Easy-to-level” meter.
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Those are the two I was thinking would be the hardest, and those are the two that I would like to have at 80. Now to figure out which one I want to avoid the grind on.
For me the thief was the easiest tbh, had m 80 in no time. I got bored with the elementalist at around 60 took so long and pretty squishy. But this is of course also personal.
Depends on what leveling method we’re talking about here. For Tyrian exploration, its probably the Mesmer- due to it getting most of its power from Grandmaster traits. If you can’t dodge…. Elementalist. Warrior can be tricky too, since its rebounding weaker then most classes.
Personally, I’d just save the lvl 80 boost until POF, and use it on a class that you’d want to use for raids or WvW but little else. Honestly the lvl 80 boost is not super important, since there are tons of Tomes of Knowledge given as rewards.
Having leveled all the classes, mesmer was the hardest by a long shot.
Edit: recent changes to torment and confusion damage may mitigate this, but I doubt it.
Leveling all the professions myself, I found a few frustrating and it was only because I didn’t quite understand the mechanics or how to play the class. (Thief and Elementalist fit here) Once I learned how to play the class in a way that worked for me, they became much easier, quicker and more manageable. In terms of time, it was the Mesmer by far but I also had a lot of fun leveling it because of the challenge and play style. Some classes are easier to figure out than others and I think this may add to the difficulty aspect.
I’d say the best answer is: the one you enjoy the least. If a profession is “hard to level” but you enjoy playing it, that lessens the burden.
For me… definitely Mesmer. I’d put Revenant and Elementalist close behind.