Guild Wars 2

Hiya.

-Everything I am talking about is PvE. I’m not too interested in PvP, although if you have some insight to give there as well, feel free-

I’ve only been playing Gw2 for a week, so I’m rather new. My Elementalist recently hit 80, which was nice, but ever since I realised that it wasn’t a class I would enjoy in the long run it’s been a bit more iffy. I just leveled it to 80 so that I could grab some extra gold for my second character more easily.

I’m just wondering if you guys could give me some tips on which class could potentially be a good fit for me based on the criteria I list below. Hopefully there is indeed a class that is like this.

- Ranged damage dealer, magical preferred but not required

- Has extremely high sustained damage, among the highest in the game

- Doesn’t necessarily need to have good burst

- Doesn’t need to be very tanky, but not dying in one hit without taking a lot of defensive traits and gear would be nice

- Doesn’t need a lot of boons or healing

- Light Armor preferred, but not required (I realise this only leaves Mesmer and Necromancer, which is why it’s not required)

- I’m not a big fan of pets

Also, I have a couple more questions. Knowledge is king.

As I intend to play the proffession that I en up with for a very long time – I had my WoW Mage for the better part of 7 years as a comparison – I have to make sure it suits my playstyle. I was woefully disappointed when I figured out that the Elementalist was nothing like what I wanted it to be, but rather a ‘jack of all trades, king of none’ which automatically makes them bad for optimized PvE setups as other classes can fill their spot and do it better than them.

Do ranged classes just plain do less damage than melee classes when grouped in Gw2?

Could anyone that really knows what they are talking about without having to provide potentially faulty information type up a quick tier list of classes in PvE based on overall desirability and DPS?

Working through your questions in reverse order:

Warrors, Guardians, and Mesmers are considered to be the top PVE classes. The rest kind of come in next, and engineers are (unfairly) often considered tier 3.

Ranged classes and weapons always do less damage than melee.

Mesmers are widely wanted for their support abilities.

Based on your criteria, I would suggest a condition based necromancer. Scepter/dagger at mid range, and staff for long range. Can’t burst at all, but bleed stacks keep ticking even when you’re dead, so sustained damage can be pretty high. Has high health and death shroud to give survival. Doesn’t bother with boons a whole bunch. And the condition build doesn’t use pets (although they are good for leveling). Oh, and your AoE abilities can’t be beat.

Downsides, your damage in world events will suffer due to condition stack limits. Likewise, a group can only really use one bleed-based member, or they can lose damage due to the cap. You won’t see any big numbers for damage, but you will see small numbers fill the screen.

Actually, Mesmer might be just right for you. Greatsword lets you do a ton of ranged damage (you do more the further away you are) and there are melee weapons to use when something insists on getting in your face. The clones/phantasms aren’t pets as such, they are long-lasting spells that nicely distract the foe. You aren’t nearly as squishy as an Elementalist, either, and your downed skills are super powerful for getting you away and up again.

I was a bit clumsy at first with my Mesmer until I got a set up that let me keep 3 clones/phantasms up most of the time and learned when to use which F1-F4 skill. Now she’s my preferred Gauntlet and underwater fighter. I’m working on a second Mesmer now and not at all bored with the repeat. Mesmers are simply fun, mobile, and with enough options to keep mixing up the fight without getting overly complex or button mashy.

We have a few super competent Mesmers in my guild and they make any dungeon run a breeze.

edit: I also really don’t like pet classes, never have in any MMO. My Ranger here is my least played alt. So I mean it when I say the clones/phantasms don’t feel like pets to manage.

Check out Engineer and stick with it longer than 20 levels.
May not be what you are looking for aesthetically, but it is great for a lot of what you mentioned. Plus you can greatly customize their play-style.

Sounds like Elementalist would be good for him. With the attunement switching I’m sure he could find a build that suits him well from what he prefers in a class.

Thank you ever so much for the replies guys, they are very much appreciated.

I shall have a go at both the Necromancer and Mesmer then, leveling them both up and see which I like. The Elementalist just wasn’t for me though, GuildWarsPlayer. Attunement swapping is an awesome mechanic and I like how fluid it feels, but the lack of good long range weapons (Staff is… eh. Not awesome) kind of killed that dream for me.

Again, super thanks. <3 Time to go level that Mesmer first I think, then Necro.

I enjoy my mesmer tremendously, I have fooled around with alts, but keep abandoning them and going back to my main – I got it right on the first try .

Having said that, mesmers are not top damage, neither sustained nor burst IMO. They can do both moderately well, but Other classes out damage us at every turn. Most classes can auto attack for thousands more than we can….but once we get set up, a good chunk of our dps is set and forget, allowing us to focus on defence and utility while still applying damage or conditions via phantasms and clones….

It’s fun and varied, and my opinions are just that. Opinions.

I’ve just made a Mesmer, Warrior and Thief and had a go at the dummies in HotM. I realise that I’m awful with all these classes so my testing isn’t much reliable at all, but I noticed there is a gigantic disparity between the damage these classes do. Is it supposed to be that way? I think I doubled my Mesmer damage with both the Warrior and Thief, it wasn’t even remotely close.

The class is a late bloomer, leveling can be…slow at times. We tend to hit puberty at about 40, and are well into quasi adulthood by 60.

Its early to say, but Rangers look better and better each day. They wear medium armor, and don’t do “magic” per say, but they do offer sustainable DPS and the class(along with Necros) have seen a lot of love from the devs lately. Something to add to the list.

boredinbc.2786:

The class is a late bloomer, leveling can be…slow at times. We tend to hit puberty at about 40, and are well into quasi adulthood by 60.

Its early to say, but Rangers look better and better each day. They wear medium armor, and don’t do “magic” per say, but they do offer sustainable DPS and the class(along with Necros) have seen a lot of love from the devs lately. Something to add to the list.

That doesn’t really apply in HotM since you have all traits available. On the other hand stats aren’t quite the same in HotM as in PvE …

Khisanth.2948:

That doesn’t really apply in HotM since you have all traits available. On the other hand stats aren’t quite the same in HotM as in PvE …

You are right, I’m not sure how I missed that. I think its time to get some sleep! LOL

It just seems like there is such a massive disparity in damage between the proffessions, I’ve never seen such imbalance before. It puts me off a littlebit since I’d like to be a spellcaster that can compare in damage with the top, which seems to be impossible in this game. :/

Elementalists do compete with the top. Just probably not using the weapon you want. There is no single ranged dps spell caster, or even just ranged dps in this game. Each classes abilities are defined by their weapon sets and are balanced off of close and long range abilities. Typically the closer you get the more damage you can do, while the farther back you are the safer but potentially weaker you are. This is hugely simplified and has many exceptions, but grab some dual daggers and with Ele and you will bring the pain.

The game was designed so that your weapons /= your build. Keep a copy of each weapon you can use available and don’t be afraid to switch it around depending on the circumstances.

I play a mesmer that is constantly changing her pistol for a focus and her GS for a staff. GS on mesmer is one of the exceptions I mentioned earlier its auto attack gets stronger at range, but does next to nothing up close.

There is more to combat than just damage.
That aside I doubt the default sPvP traits is spec for glass cannon. Also make sure you are actually comparing things correctly.

2 on warrior’s GS is damage over a 3.5s period, cancelled by movement and it has 130 range.
2 on mesmer’s GS is 3/4th of a second activation, move however you want, 1200 range, creates a clone on first hit which can be used for other thing, applies vulernability which increases damage output for everyone attacking the same target, unblockable.

Does that make them balanced? Maybe, maybe be not but there is more to compare than just the damage output.

Having done some testing on the invincible dummy in HotM with builds I could find on the forums on the Elementalist, Warrior, Mesmer and Necromancer (using Warrior as a reference point since they have such immense sustained damage) I’ve came to some interesting results. Of course I’m probably not doing things perfectly as I only spent about 15 minutes on each class, but it does give a rough overview.

Using berserkers amulet and absolute glass cannon traits with the standard armour this is the result I had:

Warrior: 12 second kill (Greatsword+Axe/Mace – just using the Axe auto after the second HB as the dummy dies before the third)

Mesmer: 13 second kill (Greatsword – 3 phantasms up already so this is long term sustain.)

Elementalist: 15 second kill (Scepter/Dagger. Damage falls off REALLY hard after this though since I’ll be waiting for burst skills to come back. Deceptively fast kill, dummy should have had more HP)

Necromancer: 19 second kill (Axe/Warhorn-Dagger/Focus. Falls off quite hard after Wells expire, but condition damage is stupidly high.

Mesmer: 20 second kill (No phantasms set up in advance)

Overall it seems like the casters sustained DPS is roughly equal if we take into account the fact that Mesmer phantasms will die sometimes in longer encounters, so they can’t match the Warrior.

I realise that this is awfully anecdotal, but at least to me it provides some frame of reference as I haven’t really seen anyone post any testing results or numbers yet.

I’m just farming some gold until I decide. Orr champion farm is silly good at the moment, made 50g there yesterday in a few hours. ^^

Your thinking about it too hard.

Pretty much every class can bring damage to a PVE encounter now a days. Necro and Ranger used to be less welcome in groups, I believe that’s mostly in the past now. I’d pick a class based on pay style.

Something about the mesmer clicked with me, maybe it’s darting in and out of close quarters combat, maybe it’s slashing a foe with a sword then shooting him in he face, but mostly it’s about death by purple butterflies. Keep paying around, level a few alts to 20+, watch some YouTube and Twitch players and find something that you respond too. After all its all the same button clicks, just a different order.

I also recommend an engineer. Look at the Flamethrower and Grenade kits. Those two can output a lot of damage if you play them right. My advice would be to build a level 1, take it into the training grounds of structured PvP, play around with builds for a while, test it out against the npc’s in there, and use that to gauge if you think it fits your playstyle and you want to take it further and make this character an 80.

I’m playing since release and I still can’t stick with a profession. Every class is lacking something and almost every weapon set has like 2 decent abilities and the rest are situational fillers. Some weapons have somewhat half-decent abilities, but I don’t like the weapon type.

Necromancer is awesome, but he has nothing for long range, pets are still useless and the class has little to no mobility. Also no fear on demand other than in DS. Boring.

Engineer is cool but I don’t like the abundance of RNG, the worthless turrets, the abilities of the rifle, the fact that it’s hardly worth building a legendary for them. In addition, grenade kit gives me karpal tunnel syndrome. Mediium armor also is the by far most generic looking and plain boring. I also feel like lots of utility stuff are rather lackluster and the damage is lacking unless you go conditions.

Guardian is okay but the only decent long range option is a scepter. Like seriously? A knight with a princess wand? Also 0 damage and rather bad mobility.

Warrior is decent, but bland. Should have 3 weapon sets he can swap to. I hate swapping out weapons for a rifle every couple of minutes because I can’t melee a boss, from a keep and in zergs etc… Probably the best profession in this game, though.

Thief used to be fun until ANet nerfed them over and over again. Now I feel like I don’t do any damage while being ridiculously squishy. Stealth also doesn’t seem to work most of the time and not because of the debuff.

Elementalist is too close ranged and squishy for my taste. I like the Staff but it’s just bad weapon on on him.

Ranger…nice but boring and hardly any condition removal. Also squishy as heck.

Mesmer is a chore to level and I’m unable to get past the first couple of levels without dying of boredom. Also too much pink and purple.

I think the most annoying part is that weapon choice dictates how you are supposed to play the profession and you can’t pick abilities you want.

I’m not missing the trinity at all and I absolutely love the combat system but I hate the fact that youcan’t pick the weapon you prefer since each weapon has a different set of abilities.

I also don’t like that every class is supposed to be able to do everything yet Guardians are bad at ranged combat with their hideous princess wands and staves, Necros have no long range combat either except for the pathetic staff autoattack, Engineer rifle has a long range autoattack yet all other abilities are close or melee range…etc.

None of the professions appealed to me so far. I like this game a lot but the fact that there is not a single profession out there that I’m fully able to enjoy really gets on my nerves.

That and the fact that almost every armor looks ridiculous and has serious clipping issues on Charr.