Guild Wars 2

I want to level a new character strictly for wvwvw and possibly spvp. I am wanting to play a useful dps class, and leaning towards a thief but I don’t want to get to level 80 and learn I should have chosen a different class. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I’m strictly a WvW player (90% WvW, 10% PvE) and I have 5 lvl 80s in ascended/exotic gear. The following are the professions I use, from most to least:

Note that each class has a variety of builds (stat allocation, skill selection) and weapons to choose from. So my experience is not comprehensive by any means, as I mostly stick to one build. But if you have nothing to base your decisions off of, perhaps this can help you.

Elementalist
I run staff with mostly berserker (glass cannon) stats
Things I like:
Great (if not best) AoE damage. I’m probably the most lethal to a group when left alone. I can also throw in various AoE CCs that can cripple many zergs. Very versatile, lots of CC, and great AoE damage. Also, elementalist can easily destroy players and sieges on walls, due to large AoE of meteor shower skill.

Things I don’t like:
Very squishy. I notice a lot of players target elementalists first because they know how destructive one can be if left alone. This means I can die easily if I don’t position myself well. Staff ele also lacks somewhat in single target DPS. Also relatively lacking somewhat in mobility

Guardian
I run GS/staff with mostly tanky stats
Things I like:
Most durable out of all the classes I play. So many self and party boons and passive and active healing abilities. I just love being able to outlast everyone in almost every fight. When I get tired of dying on my elementalist, I often come back to my guardian for faceroll. I feel the most confident roaming on my guardian

Things I dont like:
Limited to no ranged attacks. I feel like my ranged attacks only “tickle” enemies.

Warrior
I run GS/Longbow with mostly tanky stats
Things I like:
Most mobility out of all classes. GS gives you so many movement abilities that works better with swiftness. Combined with great passive regen (from healing signet) and great mobility that allows me to escape many situations, I hardly ever die in WvW on my warrior. Longbow also gives me decent ranged attack and pretty good ranged AoE abilities.

Things I dont like:
Less damage than my guardian; due to guardian’s GS abilities being superior to warrior’s GS abilities. Also, It’s easier to tag enemies with my guardian because of his 600-range AoE attack with staff. I have a harder time tagging enemies on my warrior.

Thief
I run shortbow/dual-pistol or shortbow/dagger-pistol with zerker stats
Things I like:
Great mobility and stealth, which allows me to escape many situations. AoE (from shortbow) is also pretty good and somewhat spammable. Good for ganking

Things I dont like:
Squishy, if you cant get away with stealth/mobility. Ranged AoE is also somewhat short (900 range)

Ranger
I run longbow/GS with zerker stats
Things I like:
1500 range on longbow.

Things I don’t like
Very little ranged AoE abilities. Just one AoE from longbow, and it’s on 24 sec cooldown (after trait). Most of the time, I’m limited to single target DPS. I get the least # of bags on my ranger. Because of this, I barely play my ranger in WvW.

Conclusion:
If you like dishing out heavy AoE damage and putting lots of CC, then I recommend elementalist, or engineer (I’m currently leveling an engineer).
If you like being a front-line melee, then guardian or warrior.
If you like ganking or roaming solo (or with small group) then, I’d say thief; I enjoy roaming on guard and warrior too.
Again, this isn’t comprehensive, as your experience may be drastically different with different build/weapon. But generally speaking, elementalists are good for AoE damage + CC while guard and warrior are good for front-line melee. My personal favorites are elementalist, guardian, then warrior, and I get good amounts of bags on all 3 of them.

P.S. I can’t comment on other professions because I don’t have them :P

Necros are great for spreading conditions like a plague(pun intended). Very helpful when running epidemic and there’s always that satisfaction watching your enemy die in front of you by conditions without really doing anything.

Mesmers are really the best on 1v1 and 1vX situations. There phantasm and clones really confuse enemies on the battle field and there only good counters are necros and really good eles

Don’t like engineer so that’s that.