Guild Wars 2

So, this should just be a short list of what each class was expected to be, and what each class is in the majority of cases (that I’ve observed). Obviously, the second will have some bias, however, if I am misguided, misinformed, or flat out wrong, just leave a polite comment. Or rage and let the internet laugh at you. Your choice.

Also, I have played every class to some degree, but I prefer bunkers/balanced builds rather than glass cannons. Most played class is HGH engineer, followed closely by AH guardian. Just in case you’re wondering where I’m coming from.

Expectations
Elementalist- Your mage archetype, expected strong front end damage, but it to be squishy due to lack of heavy armor.
Engineer- A nontraditional class, looked to be great at area denial with turrets, grenades, and other interesting gizmos.
Guardian- Your paladin archetype, expected your traditional sword and board, big weapons meaning big damage, and good team support, all while wrapped in a thick tin can of awesomeness.
Mesmer- Another clothy mage class, expected it to be excellent at confusing enemies, causing havok, and dealing great damage at medium range, but still be squishy if you caught it.
Necromancer- Necros always scream minion master, along with heavy DoT effects. However, once you would tear down their minions, they’d be juicy morsel of squishy goodness.
Ranger- First glance seemed a throwback to the old DnD ranger, rather than the WoW hunters, given its ability to use greatswords and axes along with swords. Still expected a master of ranged physical damage though.
Thief- It’s your rogue archetype. It sneaks, it stealths, it stabs, it runs away or dies. Still, the shortbow and pistols made it seem like it would be versatile at all ranges, though you can never keep a rogue from its sneak attack for long.
Warrior- It’s your fighter archetype. Big mass of metal and muscle to break through enemies and crush everything. Expected high damage, high health and armor, but easily taken out by any class that could kite it.

Observations
Elementalist- Squishy? Ha, more like a NWN cleric. Hard to kill, high aoe damage, good single target dps, and can escape the worst engagements with a little skill. Still, the occasional staff eles follow the traditional role of aoe battery that can be eaten by a big ol’ warrior.
Engineer- Welp, that expectation was wrong. They do their best work like a gynecologist, right up inside you. Or, they just stand there and never die. Their turrets are only used once in a blue moon, and when I had a turret/rifle engy manage to kill me, I congratulated him. He needed it.
Guardian- The sword part works. Board, usually replaced by a staff or something. They do bring great team support if they want, or are just a pain in the kitten to kill (like any good paladin is).
Mesmer- Haaa, clothies again. They can be a nightmare to fight, depending on their spec and skill, and they never want to die when you hit them in the face. The illusions are great distractions and havok wreckers though, and the ratio of mesmers on a team often corresponds to the final score’s ratio.
Necromancer- A bit of a mixed bag, necros don’t really get lumped into one class. You have MMs, well builds, and even the occasional zerker, but they do generally share one thing in common… If they’re on their feet, they’re not out of it yet. Between regen, wells’ aoe HoTs, and a double health pool from death shroud, they do not like to drop when kneed to the groin.
Ranger- 9/10 rangers has a shortbow. About 3/4 of those will have a sword as their secondary. I may have made those numbers up, but that weapon combo is very prevalent. If you see a rare gs ranger, you’re probably in for a fight, unless you’re a condition build. Then 50/50 it’s over fast.
Thief- Winner of all timer biggest pain in the kitten to kill. Without any means to break ‘em out of stealth, thieves can hide in a secret plane of existence forever, just waiting for your health to drop below 50% so they can backstab/hs your rump off. If you manage to survive the burst, expect them to retreat back into their shadow plane immediately, just to try again later. Notable exceptions are s/p and p/d venom builds, and d/d/d/d death blossom unicorn builds. Venom builds often go heavy on the stealth, but it’s not nearly as prevalent.
Warrior- See a warrior with a greatsword? Usually a free kill. Avoid their burst, then get them while their pants are down. If it has a rifle, line of sight and reflect him to death, just don’t get hit with a kill shot or you might be in trouble. Sadly, that’s the majority of warriors summed up right there. Even if it does something unexpected, you can usually just kite them to death, or use your class’s superior mechanics against it. They currently stand as winner of “Worst in Meta,” though, honestly, there is something extremely satisfying about HBing someone’s face off when their pants are down (let that image sink in).

Right, I know y’all will disagree as individuals to defend your favored class, but do try to be open minded. If you have differing opinions, post them freely, but you don’t need to attack anyone here. Save the pvp for in game.

If I’m not false you pointed out the classes in 1v1 situations. That’s just my impression. In the most cases I feel a bit the same way. But you should also consider what all the classes can do in teamfights.

Guardian: Allrdy said is a support. Besides that it’s the best revive class if specced as bunker at least. In 3v3+ a needful matchwinner.

Elementalist: Nothing to add.

Engineer: Not much build-variety there. High dps output and a big pressure in teamfights. Highrange acces through grenades. (got popular in spirit watch) Uncountable bugs with this class.

Mesmer: With Portal and Timewarp a strong class. Effective in teamfights due to stuns, immobillizes, fast aoe bursts and again Timewarp. Good in defending nodes due to portal mobility. Squishy.

Necromancer: Heavy teamfighter, with marks and aoe-rezz. If not distracted by others he is dominating node-fights. Due to plague and deathshroud able to survive. Lacks of mobility.

Ranger: Good in 1v1 fights due to constant pressure and ranged attacks. No AoE dmg makes ranger not a dedicated teamfighter. Good for speed-stomps. Pet that follows the enemy through half of the map and makes some pretty good dmg.

Thief: Best burst. In 1v1 pretty useless if not able to surprise insta-kill. Has hard times in tpvp due to the bunker meta. Addicted to stealth, otherwise an easy target that drops in seconds. In teamfights hard to play due to AoE..

Warrior: A good teamfighter with GS. Can’t be left allone because he will loose every 1v1. Not enough condition remove. High dmg output if able to hit. Other builds than 100b not existing.

Please don’t argue with sarcasm.

i agree expectations, but as long as they removed healer class, squishies need something to live on their own.

btw in my expectations, burst and bunker no longer exist. and the game become a battle between defences (hp, boons, conditions, etc) and dps….oh, and strategy ofc.

Elementalist- Squishy? Ha, more like a NWN cleric. Hard to kill, high aoe damage, good single target dps, and can escape the worst engagements with a little skill. Still, the occasional staff eles follow the traditional role of aoe battery that can be eaten by a big ol’ warrior.

Engineer- Welp, that expectation was wrong. They do their best work like a gynecologist, right up inside you. Or, they just stand there and never die. Their turrets are only used once in a blue moon, and when I had a turret/rifle engy manage to kill me, I congratulated him. He needed it.

Thief: Best burst. In 1v1 pretty useless if not able to surprise insta-kill. Has hard times in tpvp due to the bunker meta. Addicted to stealth, otherwise an easy target that drops in seconds. In teamfights hard to play due to AoE..

should be worded a strongly biased look at the classes…
I’d like OPs (engineer and thief players as you can easily spot from their posts) to share numbers of high aoe damage and strong single target DPS….while being hard to kill.

And i will stop with that because everything is so biased that discussing on such many wrong statements is impossible…..

P.S. and obviously for the same player staff ele is fair and balanced ._. cool….

I agree with the warrior observations from Creld.8702 and Empathetic Fighter.2065. Thats the class i play and i can see that on the battlefields. Warriors can also be used for suport but they dont make the diference at it.

“Elementalist: Nothing to add.”
Elementalist can also give strong AOE heals. Staff ele is great in big numbers even for dps.

silentnight warrior.2714:

I agree with the warrior observations from Creld.8702 and Empathetic Fighter.2065. Thats the class i play and i can see that on the battlefields. Warriors can also be used for suport but they dont make the diference at it.

“Elementalist: Nothing to add.”
Elementalist can also give strong AOE heals. Staff ele is great in big numbers even for dps.

Warrior is just predictable, has no gimmick and a horrible defence. A-Net devs fail hard as they programmed the warrior. The class need a complete redisign or conditions must be toned down.

Actual agree with everything op stated. One thing Anet should do publically is send a poll to every active account through ingame mail and ask them what prof and what build they use(general, not specifics like traits/utility/armor/runes/etc).

I can almost bet that 90% of ele use d/d, thieves use d/d, guardian has something/shield, warrior GS, Mesmer S/something(havnt seen many lately tbh), necro staff, ranger sb, and engineer grenade kit. Point is, there arn’t many viable builds.

There needs to be rapid nerfs/buffs like every 1 or 2 weeks in spvp primarily to start getting this show on the road, people see profession X and just predict “I know what he/she is about to do…” and it gets boring after the kitten millionth time.

SOOOOOOO much potential between each prof to have multiple (3 or more) builds but the numbers don’t support that at all atm.

NinjaEd.3946:

Actual agree with everything op stated. One thing Anet should do publically is send a poll to every active account through ingame mail and ask them what prof and what build they use(general, not specifics like traits/utility/armor/runes/etc).

I can almost bet that 90% of ele use d/d, thieves use d/d, guardian has something/shield, warrior GS, Mesmer S/something(havnt seen many lately tbh), necro staff, ranger sb, and engineer grenade kit. Point is, there arn’t many viable builds.

There needs to be rapid nerfs/buffs like every 1 or 2 weeks in spvp primarily to start getting this show on the road, people see profession X and just predict “I know what he/she is about to do…” and it gets boring after the kitten millionth time.

SOOOOOOO much potential between each prof to have multiple (3 or more) builds but the numbers don’t support that at all atm.

True. True.

short nerfs/buffs would be detrimental to an esports scene imho (if you want to consider that aspect).

an Esport needs a balanced system that seldom changes (seasons in LoL, or tell me how many changes have you seen in CS, for example).

Don Alosi.2401:

short nerfs/buffs would be detrimental to an esports scene imho (if you want to consider that aspect).

an Esport needs a balanced system that seldom changes (seasons in LoL, or tell me how many changes have you seen in CS, for example).

Seasons in LoL always having minor nerfs/buffs as people discover new strategys and usually a massive nerf or buff happens a few weeks after a new champion is introduced, not really a good comparison because LoL has had years to fine tune its game.

Counter strike…..is this even a comparison? All they have to do is keep the terrorist weapon options similiiar to the counter terrorist, and for the most part they use the same weapons (so basicly keep AK and m-16 balanced).

Thats comparing it to guild wars 2…which spvp has the following variables to consider.

8 professions.
Each with 20 utilitys that can offer SEVERAL combinations of 3 ontop of healing options and ultimates.
Multiple weapon options across each profession.
37 sigil options
52 Rune options.
150 traits with 70 trait points per profession offering hundreds of different customizations.
aprox 60 major Traits (around 10-12 per trait line) to customize.

All while trying to balance the effects of said abilitys across different style conquest maps.

This game is a balancing nightmare and it just came out and imo isnt close to an e-sport scene. Balance changes need to be frequent because there are a LOT of very obvious imbalances that need addressed BEFORE it can call itself an E-sport…

unfortunatly due to the heavy amount of variables that need to be considered i think they shot themselves in the foot and it will be sometime in 2015 before its close to where it would need to be balance wise for an E-sport :P.

Zinwrath.2049:

8 professions.
Each with 20 utilitys that can offer SEVERAL combinations of 3 ontop of healing options and ultimates.
Multiple weapon options across each profession.
37 sigil options
52 Rune options.
150 traits with 70 trait points per profession offering hundreds of different customizations.
aprox 60 major Traits (around 10-12 per trait line) to customize.

All while trying to balance the effects of said abilitys across different style conquest maps.

This game is a balancing nightmare and it just came out and imo isnt close to an e-sport scene. Balance changes need to be frequent because there are a LOT of very obvious imbalances that need addressed BEFORE it can call itself an E-sport…

I’m not saying that the game should stay as it is now, far from that! What I mean is that we need to have “frequent” changes until we find an optimal balance, then the game will need to stay as stable as possible. I’m just saying that in a good game you probably can use your experience to predict what an opponent will do, but if you change the rules every two weeks then you just end up smashing the keyboard hoping for the better

I disagree with you on the elementalist part to some extent.

• Hard to kill as a bunker only? Very much so. I felt like highlighting that part.

• High AoE damage? Only if you go all out offensive, then yes, but then you are an extremely easy kill and have to hide behind others. This only goes for WvW and PvE. In SPvP things are mediocre.

• Good single target dps? No, almost all skills are AoE to some degree and therefore the damage is much lower, as you can affect more people. The ele shines more when rushing into an ongoing fight, doing AoE damage and then flee. In a one on one fight, your realize your offensive skills are mediocre at best.

All in all, the description of the elementalist profession they advertised in the beginning does not live up to its name in all aspects of the game. PvE and WvW, yes. You can do good AoE damage, but your squishiness outshines the benefits of it, imho.
SPvP it’s definitely not the case. Be defensive, or be a complete pushover.