Guild Wars 2

I’m looking to give GW2 another few months of my time, so I wanted to check in and see how the PvE has developed. One of the biggest disappointments in this game at launch was the PvE and dungeon mechanics. The ‘everyone run around and hope it all works out’ system.

What improvements have been made to the system?

Also: How is class balance in PvE? Anything to steer clear of due to lack of demand, etc?

Thanks!

As far as PVE goes, there really is no “class balance” per say. There is no need to truly balance the classes since you are only fighting AI monsters. Having said that, there really isn’t a class that dominates all others except maybe warrior if only because of the high DPS (which is the meta atm), but all classes are useful if played well and can be built many different ways depending on how you like to play.

When it comes to dungeons, joining a guild is probably your best bet, since most of the people will be at the very least decent at doing dungeons. Joining PUG groups is hit and miss at times, but overall, I find that most people at least know the paths and what to do in them so you don’t really get the “everyone run around and do whatever” runs.

“Great” and “Bad”, depending on what you want.

If all you want is to finish content at all, then great. You can finish just about anything with any class, even completely naked in some cases.

If you want to be efficient, then the balance is rather crap. You have Warrior, Guardian and Mesmer, with the odd dash of thief here and there, and that’s basically all. Any other class tends to under perform in comparison (especially rangers that keep getting kittened in the kitten because ANet is being stubborn about their design). As such most good parties will consist of 2-4 Warriors, and 1 Guardian, Mesmer, Thief (depends on content, more often than not it’s 4 Wars and 1 Mes).

Proxy, you’re a little bit behind. 4w1m was meta half a year ago. People have figured out a efficient way to play Ranger, Engi and Elementalist and even Necromancer (…well, necro is probably the weakest….). The reason ppl kick rangers is not that the class but 99% of the players who think bearbow ranger sitting afk at 1500 range is stronk play.

CoF, the former king of 4w1m has his record speedclear time with 1r2t1m1w if I remember correct.