Guild Wars 2

Hello,

As a new GW 2 player it’s obvious I didn’t know which class to pick. I’ve read tons of posts to make a choice. The think that suprised me is that none of the class is good. Literally, every class is said to be the weakest.

Here is what I’ve read:

Engineer – flexible, but has low dmg, low survivability, can heal and this massive healing is the only thing, why you would pick him. Weak in dungeons, quite good in 1 vs 1, not that good in any other pvp.

Warrior – said, to be the only viable class, but I’ve read that warrior is free kill for any other class. Bad in any pvp, quite good for speedruns. Low dmg, not so good survivability, quite mobile.

Ranger – weak in anything, not taken to dungeons, in pvp pets are useless, so generally you should avoid this class.

Elementalist – except dealing damage it has nothing to offer. I’ve heared ele has good healing skills, but still – it’s squishy as hell.

Thief – damage dealer, very low survivability, which makes him very hard to master in both pvp and pve. In pvp he’s more like troll class, I mean – you can’t take him seriously.

Guardian – the only class I found useful. I mean, every dungeon team should have at least one quardian. In pvp if you don’t make bunker quardian you will die faster than warrior and anything but bunker is a trash, so generally guardian is a trash.

Necromancer – in pve it’s one of the worst classes. In pvp he might be good, but has literally no mobility and it’s not that hard to kill him, even if necro has high hp pool.

Mesmer – taken to dungeons only because of time warp, then he can die.. In pvp he might be good (in anything but duels mesmer is not viable), but the skill cap is that high, that noone reached it yet.

Don’t take it seriously, it’s only a summary of what I’ve read and I’m quite new to GW 2.

My question is if someone could give me some tips which class should I pick. I’m pvp oriented player, so I’ll go through pve as fast as possible only to make gear and then I can spend my time in pvp. The problem is there is literally no pvp class, every class is weak.

I didn’t make this topic to complain, but I just want to know which class excels where. I’m confused, that’s all.

Thanks for any help, sorry for my poor english.

Greetings!

So, all are best too then? Pick one and see if you enjoy it..

Well, I can only say one thing having played every single class: They all have their strengths and weaknesses, but they are all fun.

If you just want to play PvP you can do that. All you can get for PvP from PvE is different looks for your armor and weapons. Most of these you can also just buy with gold.

I’ll let the PvP people recommend a class, but you do have five slots so you can try out many classes.

I recommend you Bunker Condi Warrior for PvP and a spare Zerker equipment for PvE. Warrior does huge amounts of damage. This class is the definition of “Not a bad choice” and there are a lot of builds out there for this class, so go ahead. If you want to get creative or surprise your opponent, choose a class you really like to make builds around and develop something for yourself. You get better at what you like.

Thanks for quick replies.

Many people will recommend me different classes, so maybe it woul dbe easier if I ask you if there is any class that you would NOT suggest me to pick?

Also, is there a big difference between warrior and guardian? (pvp wise)

It really all comes down to personal preference.

Since you get the same stat choices on pvp gear at level 2 as you get at level 80, and miss only a very few (mostly useless) skills and high-level traits, it really is easy to just create a character of a class, get a pvp spec from the professions forum as a starting point, jump into a few hotjoin games, and just try how the gameplay of that class suits you. The differences in how class skills flow/feel is much bigger than the difference in what a class can accomplish.

Dont play thief. I dont like thief.

Welcome to Guild Wars 2:)

What you read is 100% truth. Each and every proffesion is garbage and it’ll stay that way. Because in here it’s not a profession that does something, it’s you. Being a guardian does not warrantee tankyness, being a elementalist does not warantee top damage. You gotta select the right weapon, right stats on gear, right skillset for it, and learn to DOOOOOOODGE! (for those Gohans out there). Then you may rock on your char;)

Now i’ll provide with list of…(mauahahahhaaha.. weaknesses!)..for each profession:

1. Guardian – you thought he’ll be tanky. Find physical job, you’re not much of a thinker. Also heals suspiciously less then some others, despite you’d think he’s the healer.

2. Warrior. he does allright on all fronts…for himself at least. His party..not that much (not nearly the level of guardian).

3. Necro – ragdoll crash dummy. Every cc in the book owns him unless he goes way out of himself to get stability via grandmaster trait. Also his pets are dump, they die, and they leave a dumb corpse.

4. Thief. Ever heard the one about a thief who shook off 6 conditions and killed that guy? Me neither. Thieves suck at removing conditions.

5. Elementalist – how do you call huge dps elementalist that soloes lupicus? Tissue cannon. Glass cannons are too tanky for him.

6. Engineer. Al-Queida’s finest. He knows real damage is done by walking around wrapped in bombs and detonating them under your own feet (bomb kit), or shooting stuff down with rocket turret. Both choices not too good for your health. Any other scenario = short conditions, and/or crappy damage. Also has similar stability issue as necro.

7. Mesmer. Don’t have one, can’t really say. But heard they’re squishy and their clones do what most clones do in s-f movies – anything but what you wanted them to do.

8. Ranger. Not too good with condi removal (but better then thief!), only job who’s greatsword skills make you think if you didn’t transmute a broken toothpick to look like a sword.

9. All jobs. This is the most terrrible flaw of them all. They require skill:/ None of them will give you waranteed victories simply for being “a tank” like in other games. All those evil abusive professions require you to learn the system, learn their skills, traits, proper stats on gear, and die a couple hundred times before you can say – YES! I’m average at guild wars 2!! achievement unlocked

One thing that’s good to remember about video game forums in general: It’s much more common for someone to make a topic/post about something they don’t like. This means that overall any forum is going to be overwhelmingly negative.

Go on any MMO forum and you’ll read about how every class, every area etc. is horribly broken and unbalanced, no one plays any more and if they do they’re trolls or idiots, everything is an elaborate scam by the developers to annoy you etc. etc. It can be quite refreshing to skim through forums for 2 or 3 different games and see how similar the complaints are.

Anyway, back to your original question I actually think that GW2 is one of those games where you genuinely can play whatever you want. It just depends on your playstyle.

For example contrary to what the forums will tell you I play dungeons exclusively on my ranger and I never have trouble getting into groups and rarely have trouble finishing dungeons. It’s not as easy as playing a warrior or guardian, but if it was I wouldn’t enjoy it.

I also like playing elementalist and engineer. You’re right that both are squishy but that’s part of the fun because it means you actually need to dodge and think about your positioning. In the hands of a good player (better than me) they can be extremely effective.

Of course some people don’t like that, they prefer the easier options and think it’s illogical to pick a profession that makes the game harder for you. But at the same time the most common complain I hear about combat in GW2 is that you just stand there and press 1, and occasionally another button. I can’t remember ever having that problem.

The best approach honestly is to try them all out and see what you like. Or if you’ve played a lot of other RPGs and have a good idea of the playstyle you like we may be able to recommend one based on that.

Good jobs making assumption by only reading the forum and not playing the game. Of course, opinion on forum will be extreme a lot of time. If you watch news in the US, Obama is a terrorist that found al-quaida and Bush is a war criminal.

GW2 have a pretty good balance. Sure it need some adjustment (and everygame always need more of that), but most profession work good in pretty much all aspect. Add to that, some misconception or old information and you have a bunch of non sense on the forum.

The thruth is, take whatever profession you want, level it up to 80 by doing whatever you want and exploring the different weapons and trait. Then try to check what the strenght and weakness of that profession is and try to find what are the best build of your profession. Of course some profession are better than other in certain field.

For exemple, necromancer are not that good in PvE
Ranger are not that good in ZergVsZerg
etc
That doesn’t mean that they can participate or do their job. But they are at a small disavantage. Still, I prefer to bring a good necromancer in a dungeon than a bad player in any profession. The player skill is a big part of the gameplay.

It’s nice to hear that in GW 2 being good doesn’t mean picking god class, but it’s dependent on gear, build and player skills.

I do really enjoy elementalist (I also enjoyed him in GW 1), I believe I can master him as I’m not new to mmo world, but would I even be able to master him that much to be better than, let’s say – guardian played by average player? I mean, are those disadventages of certain classes big enough to unable me being better than others, or it’s only up to me how good my class is going to be?

I know that playing is worth much more than gaining experience from forums, but this is first time I’ve met that unusual class balance – before GW 2 I was playing Tera, in which being skilled healer let me survive 10 ppl, which is half of the whole raid and being ranged dd means you can 1 or 2 – shot others.

Regardless of the MMO you play, people will always find something to complain about, and very little to praise the developers on.

The vast amount of people you see complaining about said class are either:

1. Complaining due to being thoroughly wrecked by said class and are amazed that they couldn’t mash buttons and spam them down with their “uber mighty build” and cannot be bothered to learn how to counter it, so they complain.

2. Complaining due to being outshined by another class in an environment that, that class shines in, which they do not.

3. Complaining when they receive nerfs their class needs because (While it’s not clear with them behind the wheel because they’re bad) the class was too strong and needed to be toned down.

Hattoni.8597:

I do really enjoy elementalist (I also enjoyed him in GW 1), I believe I can master him as I’m not new to mmo world, but would I even be able to master him that much to be better than, let’s say – guardian played by average player? I mean, are those disadventages of certain classes big enough to unable me being better than others, or it’s only up to me how good my class is going to be?

The answer is yes.

There is two side here.
1) The skill of the player, the build/gear he use and the knowledge of the player make 99% of the job.
2) When you talk about teamplayer, then is not the same thing. A team will need different things depending on what he does and what they need. In this aspect, not all profession are good in all game modes. That doesn’t mean that they can play, complete or help their team. Its just that if you want to get to the next level, then some profession will give you more bang for your buck.
- WvW Zerg = Guardian, Warrior, Necro, and Elementalist will always have a place there. They make the core or any Zerg bursting team. Mesmer and Thief are also some great profession for that, but they complete some specific role with only 1 or 2 of both are needed only.
- PvE = All profession bring something specific in dungeon. But necromancer don’t bring anything really unique. There is always another profession that can bring the same stuff, but better. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be better than 50% of the PvE population with a Necro. But at the same level of skills, a player with a necro will be less usefull and he’s usually excluded of speed run. Engineer is still in debate. Part of the community view it as a versatile profession that can do the job of several ppl freeing more space for pure DPS build. While other (the majority) view it as a jack of all trade, yes he can do the job of several profession, but always in a less efficient way, making it a bit less useful. Ranger is also excluded by several ppl in PvE. Its because the profession only have 1 meta build and it can be difficult to master so a lot of ppl either quit the profession or use a bad build (that give the ranger a bad reputation in PvE).
- sPvP : Usually Thief and Mesmer come out on top. But most profession can do a good job here. Its probably the more balance part of the game.

It’s true that most often people complain about how weak certain class is in comparison to other classes and noone say how strong their class is, but it might be funny to see topic like: ‘I love my guardian, he’s really strong!’

Anyway, at first I thought that GW2 lacks in class balance, but after your replies I can see how great it is.

Thanks all for your help, I’m going to lv my elementalist and then I’ll see who’s going to be next.

Love you guys!

Engineer – Amazing DPS in both PvE and PvP. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t been keeping up with the class at all. Great group utility, great for carrying PUGs, 2nd best at group stealth, best debuffer/self buffer, and awesome for pulling mobs/bosses with 1500 range nades.

Ranger – Also does great damage in PvE, has a horrible stigma because it’s very very hard to be a strong Ranger. Sword/warhorn + greatsword has very competitive DPS, and brings massive party buffs through Call of the Wild, Spotter and Frost Spirit. Anyone who argues with that also probably isn’t keeping up with things.

Necromancer – Offers very little in the ways of party support for things like speed clears, but for casual PvE they have good single target damage and decent control for when PUGs screw up.

Guardian – Nothing at all wrong with this class, it’s very strong in every gameplay format. Extremely high DPS, survivability and party buffing. Blind spam and Aegis make you a staple to a cookie cutter DPS team.

Warrior – No longer considered the highest DPS class (yay) brings outstanding offensive buffs, good damage and very nice self survivability. All groups should have at least 1 warrior, but the more you bring the lower your group DPS potential.

Elementalist – Squishy, yes. But that’s never stopped a good ele from meleeing with the best. Highest DPS in the game, outstanding group utility through conjured weapons and different fiels, and now a current must-have class for the basic speed run.

Thief – The best stealther in the game, great for rezzing people with stealth and blind spamming trash mobs to clear the way. Does great single target and good AoE cleave. When specced for +10% more damage when holding a bundle, you’re probably going to be the highest DPS in the game when holding things like Ice Bow and Fiery Greatsword that the Elementalist drops.

Mesmer – Great DPS, amazing reflects and great survivability. Relies on Phantasms staying up, making it a difficult class to get consistent high DPS on. Group utility is outstanding, through portals, time warp and reflects.

There you have it, all of the classes do have weaknesses but in PvE and most PvP they’re all very viable.

Necromancer and Ranger still have a huge stigma, and Engineer is getting rid of theirs slowly. Necromancer is currently the only one I would say is below all of the others, but it’s more of a game design issue than a class issue.

Are elementalists really higest damage class? Is it that squishy that I’ll have hard time surviving in pvp? How pvp works, is mass pvp really teamplay or just anyone duels others?

One thing you have to consider is that the squishier classes with higher DPS will generally have a higher skill cap and just need more experience to play WELL. Warrior has high DPS, high HP, and is mobile, meaning that it’s a “forgiving” class to play. If you make a mistake as a thief or ele, you’ll pay for it, so it forces you to play smarter.

Since in PvP everyone is level 80 and all gear is “free”, you can try lots of different classes and builds. Once you choose one you enjoy, taker him/her out into PvE and have fun. PvE, unless you’re speed clearing dungeons with a dedicated group, requires no hard skills – it’s all faceroll as soon as you figure out what all the bad guys’ skills are and how to spot them, regardless of how squishy you are.

I do really like challenges, that’s why I don’t play warrior or guardian which are more like easy modes. I choose ele, because of dmg potential, but I believe every class can work as anything. I mean, after reading much I assume there is possibility to make burst guardian which is going to do more dmg than defensive warrior. That’s what I love in GW.

But still – if we build every class to let them do as much dmg as possible – is ele top damage dealer?

I find ranger the best dps class even beter then ele

a good dps pet like a lynx and get a short ore long bow and you can kill very fast

and if you have a brown bear he can tank for you to he have a very high hp pool

Hattoni.8597:

Are elementalists really higest damage class? Is it that squishy that I’ll have hard time surviving in pvp? How pvp works, is mass pvp really teamplay or just anyone duels others?

Elementalists have decent-if-not-spectacular damage on their weapon skills. Depending on the weapons you use, condition damage could be as important as power.

However, check out the traits for damage bonuses. Compared to other professions, the elementalist has more of these, and can try to create the conditions to stack multiple of these bonuses.
(E.g. +10% damage against burning foes, +10% damage against bleeding foes, +10% damage when endurance is full, +20% damage against foes with less than 33% health, and a lot of attunement-specific bonuses.)

And finally, the most effective way for elementalists to excel at damage is through effective use of combos. Drop a fire field, and use blast finishers to give 3 stacks of Might in an area (which raises everyone’s damage). If you have teammates with blast finishers, they can use those too.

These particular tactics give an explosive (but usually temporary) boost to elementalist damage output. If you don’t use combos or traits (or runes/sigils or food buffs) effectively, you will probably find your damage slightly below average.

Genlog.4983:

I find ranger the best dps class even beter then ele

a good dps pet like a lynx and get a short ore long bow and you can kill very fast

and if you have a brown bear he can tank for you to he have a very high hp pool

The Ranger’s ranged weapons are very low damage, and Bear tanking is very looked down upon in the team play world later on. Try using a sword/warhorn if you want more DPS. Of course, play how you like in the end.

Elementalist is the undisputed highest DPS class to my knowledge, using a staff with absolute pure DPS traits like 6/2/2/2/2. My Ele doesn’t have full ascended yet, or a good rune set, but will melt mobs in dungeons as if they were open world regular mobs. This of course takes a tiny bit of know-how.

Another weapon set that doesn’t do as much damage is dagger/focus, that alone has a lot of utility while still bringing almost 8k auto-attacks from just lightning whip.

Hattoni.8597:

Are elementalists really higest damage class? Is it that squishy that I’ll have hard time surviving in pvp? How pvp works, is mass pvp really teamplay or just anyone duels others?

Elementalist is certainly in the top 3 of DPS. It’s the squishiest class for sure, but in PvP it will depend on your build.

Dagger/Dagger’s traditional build will have you tanky with a lot of survivability based off of boons. The newer version using a Celestial stat set is all around good in every aspect.

Scepter/Dagger is a squishy set, you have to favor hit and run tactics with pure spike damage to win. You’re very squishy but have a lot of tools to prevent DPS and ward off other squishy classes with your damage. The better you are, the more ‘defense’ you have through keeping squishy classes off you through pecking.

Staff has a few builds, my favorite being the absolute pure DPS nuker 6/6/00/2. It’s certainly not the best for actually trying to win, but the damage it puts out and the challenge it brings is great. Staff is considered the highest skill-cap weapon for PvP and is purely for team fights. Theres quite a few varients you can use for it, ranging from squishy to tanky. But if you choose full squish, you’re the squishiest class/build possible in the game.

On mass PvP; if you’re talking WvW then yes there are extremely organized zergs. They move as if one person, use all skills from the classes that make them up as if one person, and dodge damage as if one person. But they’ll have to be a great team to do it, and you’ll obviously need a VOIP.

If you’re talking sPvP, yes it’s very very organized and you can’t win without your team. Everything is in favor of team tactics in sPvP. There are duel rooms, however if that is more your thing. The game is built most around team-play, but offers many 1v1 scenarios that dueling will help with, so it’s not a waste to spend time there.

Whoa, guys – your replies make me feel excited about elementalist. Seems that ele is my dreamed class – hard to master, highest dmg potential, useful in pvp, not that bad healing abilities.. On the other hand isn’t burst guardian better in pvp than burst ele?

Hattoni.8597:

Whoa, guys – your replies make me feel excited about elementalist. Seems that ele is my dreamed class – hard to master, highest dmg potential, useful in pvp, not that bad healing abilities.. On the other hand isn’t burst guardian better in pvp than burst ele?

No, each burst build offers something unique. Burst Ele is riskier than a burst guardian, but burst guardian is very balanced overall and better for 1v1s that a burst ele would have more trouble or getting jumped by a single person.

Burst guardians are easily overwhelmed due to needing to have well-placed blinds and aegis and lack escapes, where as eles have an almost thief/mesmer-like ability to pick and choose fights with good judgement/CD use unless using a staff or /focus.

Elementalist is in an amazing spot right now, so if you’ve ever wanted one then you’ll have a great time now where every single weapon set is used.

Not to create new thread, let me ask you something – if we are talking about, let’s say – dueling – we mean very skilled players, but how many that skilled players are there? Is it like 50/50 or it’s more like 1% of all players are masters of their class? How often I’ll meet top players? In my opinion it doesn’t matter which class you pick in any game – if you play against unskilled, casual player you will always win.

I have to disagree with what you said about the necromancer. Condition necromancers can be very good in PvE. They aren’t too great in dungeons, but they can still deal a lot of damage.
Also warriors aren’t that bad in PvP, they’re just a bit more difficult to use when compared to PvE (easy mode).

Rhomulos.2089:

Genlog.4983:

I find ranger the best dps class even beter then ele

a good dps pet like a lynx and get a short ore long bow and you can kill very fast

and if you have a brown bear he can tank for you to he have a very high hp pool

The Ranger’s ranged weapons are very low damage, and Bear tanking is very looked down upon in the team play world later on. Try using a sword/warhorn if you want more DPS. Of course, play how you like in the end.

Elementalist is the undisputed highest DPS class to my knowledge, using a staff with absolute pure DPS traits like 6/2/2/2/2. My Ele doesn’t have full ascended yet, or a good rune set, but will melt mobs in dungeons as if they were open world regular mobs. This of course takes a tiny bit of know-how.

Another weapon set that doesn’t do as much damage is dagger/focus, that alone has a lot of utility while still bringing almost 8k auto-attacks from just lightning whip.

i mostly use long bow I no it slower but the range and some skills make me a killer
skill 3 make me cloak skill 4 KB a enemy

also I use a lot of terrain am not standing on the ground I will look for a higher place
because I no my range still will hit some players

mostly I use cat like pets for the dps and mostly my brown bear to use shake it of

still sad the players use a sword and horn
its not what a ranger most be doing its a archer class hide and seek

but maybe its because I like to pvp solo
I love sneaking around :p

thief is also good in that
if I wane party with a big group I use Ele
that class suits much beter for helping others in my few

Hattoni.8597:

Hello,
Warrior – said, to be the only viable class, but I’ve read that warrior is free kill for any other class. Bad in any pvp, quite good for speedruns. average dmg, good survivability, quite mobile.
Mesmer – taken to dungeons only because of time warp and reflects, then he can die.. In pvp he might be good (in anything but duels mesmer is not viable), but the skill cap is that high, that noone reached it yet.

fixed for you

Hattoni.8597:

Not to create new thread, let me ask you something – if we are talking about, let’s say – dueling – we mean very skilled players, but how many that skilled players are there? Is it like 50/50 or it’s more like 1% of all players are masters of their class? How often I’ll meet top players? In my opinion it doesn’t matter which class you pick in any game – if you play against unskilled, casual player you will always win.

You’ll start off fighting newer players, but the more you win and the better you do, the sooner you’ll see experienced players. Start by doing Hotjoin, aka the server browser style PvP.

This is a very unorganized, zerg-style pvp filled with mindless killing. Use it to learn the maps, and the maps only. tPvP arenas like solo or team will boast much better players, and you’ll see what you’re really supposed to be fighting. Never take Hotjoin seriously. Ever. It’s just frustrating if you’re trying to win.

WvW plays a lot differently than sPvP, it’s more burst damage and mobility oriented regardless of your class. sPvP focuses much more on small scale organized roles with a set objective.

You’ll run into great players in both, players in WvW only focus on killing potential where as sPvP is more about controlling the other person in some way. (kills, making them waste time, etc)

Hattoni.8597:

Hello,

As a new GW 2 player it’s obvious I didn’t know which class to pick. I’ve read tons of posts to make a choice. The think that suprised me is that none of the class is good. Literally, every class is said to be the weakest.

Here is what I’ve read:

Engineer – flexible, but has low dmg, low survivability, can heal and this massive healing is the only thing, why you would pick him. Weak in dungeons, quite good in 1 vs 1, not that good in any other pvp.

Warrior – said, to be the only viable class, but I’ve read that warrior is free kill for any other class. Bad in any pvp, quite good for speedruns. Low dmg, not so good survivability, quite mobile.

Ranger – weak in anything, not taken to dungeons, in pvp pets are useless, so generally you should avoid this class.

Elementalist – except dealing damage it has nothing to offer. I’ve heared ele has good healing skills, but still – it’s squishy as hell.

Thief – damage dealer, very low survivability, which makes him very hard to master in both pvp and pve. In pvp he’s more like troll class, I mean – you can’t take him seriously.

Guardian – the only class I found useful. I mean, every dungeon team should have at least one quardian. In pvp if you don’t make bunker quardian you will die faster than warrior and anything but bunker is a trash, so generally guardian is a trash.

Necromancer – in pve it’s one of the worst classes. In pvp he might be good, but has literally no mobility and it’s not that hard to kill him, even if necro has high hp pool.

Mesmer – taken to dungeons only because of time warp, then he can die.. In pvp he might be good (in anything but duels mesmer is not viable), but the skill cap is that high, that noone reached it yet.

Don’t take it seriously, it’s only a summary of what I’ve read and I’m quite new to GW 2.

My question is if someone could give me some tips which class should I pick. I’m pvp oriented player, so I’ll go through pve as fast as possible only to make gear and then I can spend my time in pvp. The problem is there is literally no pvp class, every class is weak.

I didn’t make this topic to complain, but I just want to know which class excels where. I’m confused, that’s all.

Thanks for any help, sorry for my poor english.

Greetings!

Engineer: Deals Hybrid Damage, not in the best spot but A-net is working on that. useful in Dungeons if you have the right build. Good in WvW as you can easily 1v5 or so as an Engineer. OVERALL: right build makes the class good.

Elementalist: Spike Dmg then die, or support and be overshadowed. Very useful in dungeons and world bosses for Conjure weapons and AoE.

Warrior: A-Net’s favorite class, will be “best” class because of that. Good Damage, decent survivability, Great Mobility. Good in PvE for solo, okay in PvP and WvW.

Necro: No real Niche in the game imo, Power build is out shined, Condi dmg not as good as a power build of another class. Okay in dungeons but will be on the lower list.

Guardian: Nice Key farmer, fun to play, always picked for dungeon unless it is with Elitist Zerkers. Good in PvE okay in PvP and okay for WvW

Mesmer: Not to fun to level solo. Good PvP, Good WvW with small group(speed buff mostly). Brought to dungeons for Portal TW and some dmg.

Thief: High burst damage, decent survivability with build. Great Mobility with builds.
Annoying in PvP and WvW, okay in PvE(need to go power and defense to solo)

Ranger: Fun to play PvE, bad in PvP from what I heard. okay in WvW Decent damage, 40/60 – 60/40 damage split with certain builds for Player and Pet. Not really wanted in dungeons as they are mostly well.. RANGERS. and most dungeon experience is stack into a tight corner and spam melee weapons.

These are my opinion and views of the classes. Please take it with a grain of salt, as I am purely a PvE player.

I’m grateful for responses, didn’t even suspect this community would be that helpful. If we are talking so much about classes we can try to create rankings, which class shines where. My suggestions are: wvw, dungeons, small scale pvp and mass pvp. Let’s sum up all of other threads about x class or y class. We can make it simplier and give just top 3 classes for every mode.

Hattoni.8597:

We can make it simplier and give just top 3 classes for every mode.

No, we can’t. It depends entirely on the person behind the keyboard and their ability to bring together traits, utilities, equipment (stats), personal skill in using all the tools available, reaction time, and recognition of enemy skills (regardless of pvp or pve).

A skilled player of a “bad” class can often if not always beat a lesser skilled (not bad, just not quite that good) player of a “good” class, and a team of meta-geared and -traited dungeon runners can and will wipe regularly if they don’t use the correct utilities (blocks, blinds, evades, …) at the right time.

Hattoni.8597:

I’m grateful for responses, didn’t even suspect this community would be that helpful. If we are talking so much about classes we can try to create rankings, which class shines where. My suggestions are: wvw, dungeons, small scale pvp and mass pvp. Let’s sum up all of other threads about x class or y class. We can make it simplier and give just top 3 classes for every mode.

Everyone will say thing differently and it change depending on what you are doing. Even in PvE.

Each dungeon will need different things. For exemple, I always bring my guardian when I do CM, SE, Arah or Fractals. But i’ll prefer to bring my Elementalist in AC, etc.

Also, each profession usually bring different stuff. In a good PvE dungeon team, the only profession that you want to bring more than 1 is elementalist. The rest of the team will bring only 1 represent of any profession. It also depend on the gameplay of a team. You can bring a Warrior Phalanx for easy constant might or a S/X Elementalist for a big burst of might at the start of the fight. A team could give the responsability of vulnerability manly on a Staff Ele, or could spread it to a Hammer Guardian, Warrior and Thief. For PvP and WvW this is even worst. So many composition possible and nobody really know how each of those compare to each other because they are so close of each other. At this point the skill of the player will make all the difference between a composition slighty less good but player by better player vs a composition really good but player by ppl a bit less good.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Hattoni.8597:

Are elementalists really higest damage class? Is it that squishy that I’ll have hard time surviving in pvp? How pvp works, is mass pvp really teamplay or just anyone duels others?

Elementalists have decent-if-not-spectacular damage on their weapon skills. Depending on the weapons you use, condition damage could be as important as power.

However, check out the traits for damage bonuses. Compared to other professions, the elementalist has more of these, and can try to create the conditions to stack multiple of these bonuses.
(E.g. +10% damage against burning foes, +10% damage against bleeding foes, +10% damage when endurance is full, +20% damage against foes with less than 33% health, and a lot of attunement-specific bonuses.)

And finally, the most effective way for elementalists to excel at damage is through effective use of combos. Drop a fire field, and use blast finishers to give 3 stacks of Might in an area (which raises everyone’s damage). If you have teammates with blast finishers, they can use those too.

These particular tactics give an explosive (but usually temporary) boost to elementalist damage output. If you don’t use combos or traits (or runes/sigils or food buffs) effectively, you will probably find your damage slightly below average.

This is a very accurate explanation of why ele’s are said to be highest DPS by many.

I play primarily ele’s; so I think there’s a caveat. Not played a warrior or guardian, but ele’s total DPS shines against groups of mobs.

I did more single-target damage with the ranger I deleted and with the engineer I still have. When I can group mobs up and apply direct damage and condition ticks, I can clear large swaths of ground. When it’s a single champ or above, life starts to suck.

I found the necro to be the same or slightly better potential dps vs mobs, but then there’s that whole lack of mobility thing they have going on – which results in lots of running awa… repositioning.

EDIT: Forgot – This is another strength I found in ele that necro didn’t really have – the ability to build them such they can do high DPS vs. a lot of mobs, take one or two direct non-one-shot hits, and dodge or otherwise quickly maneuver out to prep for another pass.

And some of y’all need to go back and read the post all the way through – you missed OP putting perspective at the end of the post.

Genlog.4983:

……
i mostly use long bow I no it slower but the range and some skills make me a killer
skill 3 make me cloak skill 4 KB a enemy

also I use a lot of terrain am not standing on the ground I will look for a higher place
because I no my range still will hit some players

mostly I use cat like pets for the dps and mostly my brown bear to use shake it of

still sad the players use a sword and horn
its not what a ranger most be doing its a archer class hide and seek

but maybe its because I like to pvp solo
I love sneaking around :p

thief is also good in that
if I wane party with a big group I use Ele
that class suits much beter for helping others in my few

Not to be harsh, but most of what you are posting about your Ranger sounds a bit delusional….. Seriously, you are fooling yourself if you think a Ranger with a bow can out damage a melee Ranger (even a GS Ranger). Your image of what a Ranger “should be” does not enter into the conversation of DPS builds.

Don’t listen to what we, or anybody else says. You really have to play a class to know if it suites your own individual playstyle and needs. A lot of people lock themselves into the first class that they pick off the seat of their pants without ever trying the others. The only thing I can recommend is, pick a class that sounds somewhat appealing, play around with it in PvE, try all the weapons, go to PvP try some different builds, and then move onto the next class.

It won’t be a deciding factor, but at the very least getting your feet a bit wet with a class will give you an initial indicator as to whether it’s inline with how you want to play.

You should pick a class based on whether YOU like it, forget what other people say, and what’s the current flavour of the month meta build/class. You WILL NOT enjoy this game if you play a class that you don’t like only because other people tell you it’s viable.

As far as viability is concerned, a player that really knows the ins and outs of his class, and how the game works will be better in every aspect of the game than some newbie who picks a class because it’s got the best XYZ. Hard counters aside (i.e., condi necro versus Diamond Skin Ele), anybody that says otherwise just needs to get good.