Guild Wars 2

Hi all! Just was wondering what class is the FOTM right now, and which ones are pretty solid in terms of balance. And just so we’re clear, I don’t want to be playing the FOTM due to impending nerfs, etc. I’m leaning a little towards Ranger, but I’m open to suggestions!

TLDR; Sell me on your favorite class!

There is no “FOTM”.

Warriors, Guardians and Mesmers have always been the way to go, and still are. Rangers and Engineers especially are worthless.

There is no FotM (flavor of the month) in guild wars 2….because nothing ever changes.

In six months nothing has changed significantly class wise minus a few small nerfs. its like no one works on classes at all. There are still the same typos in the skill descriptions from day one.

FOTM? I think you might have mistaken this forum with WoW’s one.
GW2 has no FOTM just good and bad players.
In PvE though classes are not equally good, the War/Guard/Mes trio leads the way by far.
I would put Thief on par with the trio but since most Thieves can’t play permablind/stealthrez I can’t really speak for them until they l2p.

Um, only roll a Ranger if you want be one of the 3 most broken Professions in GW2.

If you want to be “strong” and “wanted” in both PVE and PVP, go with:
-Warrior
-Thief
-Mesmer
-Elementalist
-Guardian

If you want to be a class with a lot of bugs and in desperate need of rebalancing :
-Engineer
-Necromancer
-Ranger

I wouldn’t worry about nerfs, classes like Warrior’s only see buffs. Warrior’s are by far the strongest PVE class right now, next to the always-wanted and loved-by-many Guardians.

Necro’s, Engineers and Rangers have been broken for 6 months now, I wouldn’t expect many buffs to them anytime soon either. I could be wrong though, I hope I am.

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Rangers and Engineers especially are worthless.

- Ranger is the only class that can deal autoattacks from 1500 range and stack 20 vulnerability quickly.

Most classes do well, I’ve played mesmer, elementalist, and necro to 80 and enjoy them all differently. You’d be better off to go with your playstyle. The balance isnt perfect (how could it be with the number of variables) but its quite reasonable, especially if you pick a class YOU play well.

Thanks for the input, guys!

Sorry, GW2 doesn’t have enough skills to have flavor of the month. You’re looking for GW1. In terms of best classes, go with Warrior for PvE, Thief for WvW, or Warrior, Thief, Mesmer, Guardian, Elementalist for sPvP. These positions haven’t changed since launch really.

If you you want to play Ranger, Engineer, or Necromancer, be prepared for a firm difficulty hike. It’s basically like playing Hard Mode in a way, so if you don’t like facerolling stuff and want to have to pay attention to what you’re doing all the time, roll one of those three.

I’m taking the comments about Engineers/Rangers/Necromancers as opinion, not fact. It’s not always immediately obvious how to play these classes. I play an engineer and there are countless different ways I could set myself up. The trick is finding the right mix of abilities and tactics to both satisfy your enjoyment and be effective.

My personal experience with the engineer was that I initially was overwhelmed with the broad range of abilities, weapon kits, turrets, etc. and the very loose connection between them all. Once I settled on a playstyle and build, and figured out which things I wanted and which I didn’t, I started to like my character. I currently play a rifleman in PvE with elixirs in my skill slots for buffs and condition damage. One day I might decide I want to do AoE support as a grenadier, or maybe defend an area with turrets and land mines.

It’s way too easy to have ineffective strategy with these classes, but that doesn’t make them inherently bad.

Zenith.6403:

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Rangers and Engineers especially are worthless.

- Ranger is the only class that can deal autoattacks from 1500 range and stack 20 vulnerability quickly.

Autoattacks are worthless if they barely do any damage… and vulnerability is limited to 25 stacks which is reached regardless of a ranger stacking it 20 times or not.

dinominator.9862:

I’m taking the comments about Engineers/Rangers/Necromancers as opinion, not fact. It’s not always immediately obvious how to play these classes. I play an engineer and there are countless different ways I could set myself up. The trick is finding the right mix of abilities and tactics to both satisfy your enjoyment and be effective.

My personal experience with the engineer was that I initially was overwhelmed with the broad range of abilities, weapon kits, turrets, etc. and the very loose connection between them all. Once I settled on a playstyle and build, and figured out which things I wanted and which I didn’t, I started to like my character. I currently play a rifleman in PvE with elixirs in my skill slots for buffs and condition damage. One day I might decide I want to do AoE support as a grenadier, or maybe defend an area with turrets and land mines.

It’s way too easy to have ineffective strategy with these classes, but that doesn’t make them inherently bad.

When millions of people are spread out over only 8 classes…..the problem isnt that all of those people cant figure out the nuances of a class.

Its not an opinion when people say necro, ranger and engineer are weak.

The numbers dont lie.

As a ranger I take offense to all this negative ranger talk! We have bugs, but we are far from useless. Good rangers are few and far between, but we can deliver a beating and survive the day when we are good

Malvagite.3254:

When millions of people are spread out over only 8 classes…..the problem isnt that all of those people cant figure out the nuances of a class.

Its not an opinion when people say necro, ranger and engineer are weak.

The numbers dont lie.

Which numbers are those?

Do we have statistical evidence that across ‘millions’ of players, all the engineers/necros/rangers are weak? Or are we basing this on the experiences of those who have posted their concerns?

And for that matter, I thought GW2’s big thing was that numbers don’t matter.

dinominator.9862:

Malvagite.3254:

When millions of people are spread out over only 8 classes…..the problem isnt that all of those people cant figure out the nuances of a class.

Its not an opinion when people say necro, ranger and engineer are weak.

The numbers dont lie.

Do we have statistical evidence

Well, yeah, actually we do, head on over to the profession sub-forums. And thieves and warriors absolutely kittening annihilate most other classes on DPS.

Warriors are the flavor at the moment.

Currently the most dps out of any class.

Will probably be changed soon.

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Autoattacks are worthless if they barely do any damage… and vulnerability is limited to 25 stacks which is reached regardless of a ranger stacking it 20 times or not.

- Not even WvW zergs stack vulnerability that high, because everyone seems to run some crit / condition build these days. Every class receives same stats from items and only skill damage and traits make the difference. Ranger Longbow deals more damage than Mesmer Greatsword for example because of better traits.

Ranger has

• First hit always critical
• +10% damage when endurance full, +5% damage longbow, +10% damage flank, 5% of vitality to power (min. +45.8)

Mesmer has

• +50 power, +5% damage to inactive foes, +4% for each readied mantra (max 4)

People are way oversimplifying this. Rangers, engineers, and Necros all have a place on a team, each has utility and abilities no other class has. I’ve seen a winning tourney team run double engineers. The difference is in random public matches nobody has the coordination to use the utility unique to each class, and so it comes down to tankiest or most damaging classes and nothing else.

Zenith.6403:

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Rangers and Engineers especially are worthless.

- Ranger is the only class that can deal autoattacks from 1500 range and stack 20 vulnerability quickly.

Cept Engineer’s can also hit from 1500 range. Actually, hitting from 1500 range is kind of gimmicky because the arrow and grenade speeds are so slow that people strafe out of the way.

Conncept.7638:

People are way oversimplifying this. Rangers, engineers, and Necros all have a place on a team, each has utility and abilities no other class has. I’ve seen a winning tourney team run double engineers. The difference is in random public matches nobody has the coordination to use the utility unique to each class, and so it comes down to tankiest or most damaging classes and nothing else.

I believe people are talking about PvE issues, not sPvP stuff.

Warriors, thief, guardian, mesmer, elementalist best.

Ranger okay.

Engineer good to real good if you understand what power engineer can do that no other class can.

Necromancer okay.

Engineer is an awesome class, but it really needs a viable melee spec.

Necros are probably the least represented class and have a couple of problems in certain specs. Namely pet ai.

What ever you do, stay away from Necromancer, Engineer, Ranger and you’ll be fine.

Make a warrior and steamroll

I play an Engineer. I think it’s great! I enjoy myself, have no trouble going anywhere in the open world.

I have always been a ranged player. I just cannot get in to playing a warrior. I don’t care how godly the melee classes are. Melee is just not my thing. So to me, I would just stand back and use the rifle or bow on the warrior anyway… Therefore, my first character in GW2 was a ranger, second was the Engineer. The engie is over 80 with a full set of almost 80 exotics. I’m having a blast with the engineer.

My top choices would be Warrior, Guardian, Elementalist, and Engineer.

If you want to PvP or wvw, go thief, mesmer, warrior, or necromancer (WvW) for pull and fear.

Like the rest have said, Warrior is the pve way to go, if its wvw, then go for a culling thief, they kill everything and walk away!

My thoughts from observation/guild chat/experience
PvE = Warrior, Guardian, Ranger, Elementalist
WvW = Mesmer, Elementalist, Thief, Guardian (basically these 4 are what people play in wvwvw, any other class and you gimp yourself’

Snowy.9580:

Like the rest have said, Warrior is the pve way to go, if its wvw, then go for a culling thief, they kill everything and walk away!

Yea this is the most annoying thing about wvwvw right now, if thats your thing. Thieves that stealth so often the culling effect rarely renders them making it lucky to even get one targetted attack off on them while they land massive bombs on you. grrr!!

Its probably the main unbalanced thing right now, but its not intended, its an engine problem that they having been working on fixing for some time (and have some new fixes coming). Just this class and setup exploits it to the maximum.

Yep, for PvE it is Warrior – there is no second place.
For WvW it is Thief – again there is no second place.

In Guild Wars 2, no single profession is FotM. Instead, this game has a whole Dungeon that is FotM. It is called “Fractals of the Mists”.

Having said that, just play whatever profession you like. Some are more difficult to play than others, some experience more bugs than others. All are playable, some just are more challenging.

Having said THAT, if you want as little challenge as possible, play a Warrior.

As Warrior, Guardian or Elementalist you’ll have it easy because they are very straightforward and people understand them with a glance. Mesmer requires skill but their unique utility is very, very good.

As an Engineer myself, I can’t really complain. My toon has tools for every situation. The difference is mostly that I actually have to change my bar every boss because engi isn’t about raw numbers.

I have the feeling necro and ranger are viable in their own right, but they are difficult to play right. As such they are (imho rightfully) ignored in PUGs. A guild will appreciate a good necro or ranger though.

And I thought FotM was “Fractals of the Mists”…