Guild Wars 2

Hey guys!
Before you continue, I do own HoT, so I can play any spec.
I am a classical rpg player. I want a class to play 90% of my time in guild wars 2, maybe except pvp.
I currently have a thief I enjoy rather much. My concerns are mostly about not being taken in public raids, or high fractals.
Furthermore I tried a bit wvw roaming…and failed miserably. To be viable seems to take a high learning curve. Also being so squishy feels not very good, but maybe I am just too bad for dodging at the right time.

I also have an elementalist, I like those 20 skills, but sometimes I feel a lack of bursting in pve, if I watch at my thief, and that I feel squishier than a snowball in hell. A bit wvw was devastating for me, and destroyed much of my fun with the class.
Some of my friends told me the dps rotation in raids is similar to playing a piano, which means a skyscraper high learning curve (but I am not sure here).

Thirdly I created a guardian. I like those high numbers, I am not so squishy and can do most things by myself, but especially in wvw I feel very slow and cannot catch any other player. Most of the high damage of guardian is based on aegis uptime, which is literally not existant for me.
The necessary rune of the traveler for wvw also scares me away.

What would be your advise?
My priorities are (highest to lowest):

• (high) fractals
• wvw (solo)roaming
• raids (and contributing something to the group)
• wvw zerging
• pvp

Many told me I can play literally anything in Open World, so there should be no problem I guess.
I hope I get some answers…or maybe GW2 is not the right game for me, it does not feels like having a main, and rather having a class for each playmode.

FreakinBeast.8517:

The necessary rune of the traveler for wvw also scares me away.

There is another Rune with different stats available that grants +25% speed: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Speed – it’s a lot easier to aquire (you can either buy the Lodestones in the ah or farm them on your own. I did this in Malchor’s Leap by killing spark elementals. About every 50th dropped one) and the additional vitality also probably isn’t the worst stat in pvp because of conditions, but I have to admit, that I barely play WvW or PvP.

Lanhelin.3480:

FreakinBeast.8517:

The necessary rune of the traveler for wvw also scares me away.

There is another Rune with different stats available that grants +25% speed: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Speed – it’s a lot easier to aquire (you can either buy the Lodestones in the ah or farm them on your own. I did this in Malchor’s Leap by killing spark elementals. About every 50th dropped one) and the additional vitality also probably isn’t the worst stat in pvp because of conditions, but I have to admit, that I barely play WvW or PvP.

To add to that, traveler/speed runes is only required on a select group of classes and specs. It’s really only a few that “require” travelers.

To give an example, my p/p condi scrapper with alchemy/firearms must use travelers or be slow as molasses. Cant spec toolkit swap speed, wont have mechalegs. It’s a sacrifice I have to make.

However, power scrapper or power/condi engineer specs dont need it – they run with inventions most of the time, ie mechalegs.

Another example is my DH roamer. Again, I am forced toward travelers. Cant get speed from the staff (not using a staff), nothing in the way of skills (not running retreat). But regular zerger guardians scoff at that, they just stack a million years of swiftness.

And those two pretty much cover the range of classes, lol. The others usually get speed one way or another, or they dont need (supported by said zerger guardians).

FreakinBeast.8517:

…What would be your advise?
My priorities are (highest to lowest):

• (high) fractals
• wvw (solo)roaming
• raids (and contributing something to the group)
• wvw zerging
• pvp

…

As your title is “most versatile class”, I would suggest you try mesmer. The chronomancer elite spec is welcome in challenging gameplay. Ele is also a good choice, with excellent DPS or support specs available. They are also welcome in all types of gameplay.

As far as your forays into wvw roaming, it sounds like you need more durability. You can run glass cannon builds in open world all day, but survivability is much more important in WvW settings. I suggest you have a look at metabattle (http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki) and take note of build similarities by game mode. Then, either adopt or adapt a build of your own.

Good luck!

Right now, I’d say that the most versatile class in the game is the Mesmer. It’s highly sought after for most content due to its strong support options, and a really good Mes is a pain to take down in PvP with all the debilitation and interrupt it can throw around. Mirage looks like it’ll be a more aggressive spec focusing on putting constant pressure on enemies while being difficult to hit.

As mentioned before, Elementalist is also super-versatile, but it takes a lot of work to master the class due to the huge range of gameplay styles available depending on the situation. You also may want to keep an eye on the Engineer’s Holosmith spec. I hear good things.

Druid is another good option. Although its DPS in PVE (Raids/T4 Fractals) is not good, it brings a lot of offensive support and some healing. If specced for it, it can also be played as a pure healer, although you´d need to carry around another set of gear for solo play.
Condition Druid/Ranger is also near top tier dps in Raids/Factals with offensive support.

In pvp it can be a nice Supporter/bunker and also a burster/roamer in wvw or smallscale.

All that can be achieved, not perfectly, but fairly well with only 2 or 3 different builds, so its not thaaaaat expensive…

You will always get a spot in dungeons/fractals/raids with druid, also in pvp and solo roaming. Zerging in WvW can become a bit difficult, because there are other classes better for that (Guard, War, Rev, Ele, Necro)

Warrior works well in all those roles.
High CC bursts in pvp, CPS in most pve groups. WvW as well.