Guild Wars 2

Sorry if this has been asked before. I’m just after a more recent answer

Which class is capable of the highest burst damage both single target and AoE?

By this I mean the ability to kill a single target or group quickly? I’m not concerned about defensive capability, just raw burst. Nothing else.

I would say Ele and Mesmer atm. Fresh Air-Ele and Shatter-Mesmer

Yeh I’d agree with Belze. Both are unfortunately two of the harder specs to learn though, so it will take effort to be able to utilize that burst.

Thank you both.

Could either of you clarify if they are both good at AoE or Single target burst?

usually used for single target bursting but their skills can hit multiple enemies.

Both both.
AoE is situational. Best on downed state clusters.

If you want to know how mesmer-bursts work, take a look at these videos ^^.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu2wU56QoFKbofxiqHHofdQ/videos

Belze Intilie.8436:

I would say Ele and Mesmer atm. Fresh Air-Ele and Shatter-Mesmer

This ^^. Ele probably being #1.

if you’re after an easy-to-play alternative then you could try a static discharge engi.
not as bursty kittenter/fresh air perhaps, but a whole lot easier to play

Liewec.2896:

if you’re after an easy-to-play alternative then you could try a static discharge engi.
not as bursty kittenter/fresh air perhaps, but a whole lot easier to play

SD Engi might have burst that is a bit easier to pull off, but they usually run no stunbreaks and are even more unforgiving xd
Ele and Mes both have invulnerables and built-in control skills at long ranges to keep a ranged game, but SD has to be basically in melee range to unload.
In the end, all of them have great burst potential, but if you’re also taking into consideration which is easiest to land/hardest to dodge, I would go with Ele.

D/P Thief /15char

Ralkuth.1456:

Liewec.2896:

if you’re after an easy-to-play alternative then you could try a static discharge engi.
not as bursty kittenter/fresh air perhaps, but a whole lot easier to play

SD Engi might have burst that is a bit easier to pull off, but they usually run no stunbreaks and are even more unforgiving xd
Ele and Mes both have invulnerables and built-in control skills at long ranges to keep a ranged game, but SD has to be basically in melee range to unload.

i dunno, as for stunbreakers, i LOVE Utility Goggles in an SD build, fury, stunbreak, 10% more damage (from 10 stacks of vulnerability) also 5 stacks of might for me since i run Gadgeteer in my SD build.
as for the range its a win win, in melee you get the power of rifle 3 and 5, from a distance you get 10% higher crit chance from the “Scope” trait,
i uploaded a gif last week of one-shotting two people at the same time with SD,
its ridiculously easy to play

i agree that for the ultimate burst shatter and fresh air are probably the best, but also require alot more practice than SD.

also guardian needs a shoutout in this thread
with good timing guardians can put out some ridiculous burst,
again though, its a hard build to master

Best burst that ive seen is this easily

http://www.twitch.tv/doctorbeetus/c/3227745

‘best’ is pretty subjective.

x/focus hammer goordian (digustingly funny)

sorrychief.2563:

‘best’ is pretty subjective.

x/focus hammer goordian (digustingly funny)

focus hammer guardian is fun at one shoting as well. :p

Longbow ranger is definitely up there. They can do very strong burst from a long distance using an ability on a very short cooldown.

Fresh air with 2x arcanes and LF is up there, but actually lightning-rod ele has more raw burst.

Boots has played around with the build, and has a video that is pretty funny to watch: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/I-made-another-thing-Ele-Burst-Vid/first#post4482912

Ele

Much more regular burst than on mesmer and a bit higher burst
900 range
More button pressing
More burst options
Phoenix is probably my favorite skill in the game..
Can stack might
FGS is sweet against gates

Mesmer
Portal -INSANELY GOOD.
1200 range
Very slippery with 1200 range blink, phase retreat on staff, you can TP up a lot of blink and phase retreat spots.
A lot of interrupts. (4 from diversion alone if you position your clones right, somewhat RnG on Chaos Storm but can hit multiple times + GS knockback)
Clones confuse your enemy
Not a lot of condi removal, you need to learn how to dodge the key condi applications to keep yourself alive.
Insane in combat mobility thanks to staff. Most of the time you are off point though.
AOE boon rip

Both have trouble with thief but there are ways to make your life easier.
I played both for a while and while I did gravitate to ele for a little tiny period I’ve chosen mes due to the extremely unique mechanics, fun playstyle and it is a lot harder to play than ele.
I’d suggest you take a look at my guide for staff + gs shatter.
People also use gs + sword/x or staff + sword/x but it is inferior once you get the hang of staff + gs.

Every class has quite the ability to burst, but not every class is designed to be able to mitigate pressure when speccing as zerker. I’d say the best way to pick a class is to look at each of the play styles and see what you enjoy the most. Here’s a list of burst specs to start with, which can be altered based on whether you want more burst or defence:
1. Guardian – Meditations
2. Warrior – Kill Shot + Hundred Blades / Eviscerate
3. Thief – D/P Trickery
4. Engineer – Static Discharge
5. Ranger – Longbow
6. Necromancer – Power Death Shroud
7. Mesmer – Shatter
8. Elementalist – Fresh Air

ele s/d 66002 fresh spec has the highest burst potential. But I woudnt recomment this build because your survivability is against 0.

Imo, a Meditation Guardian has the highest AoE burst (Easiest to land too), guard has many instant cast Aoe skills which make them beasts vs other squishies. The only problem with them is they are squishy and require use of blinds and blocks for sustain.

On my Zerker Med Guard I can kill the heavy golems in PvP in just under 3 seconds (with a 2 second setup).

If you want a full glass combo I would go with this rotation. Empower—>*Weapon swap*—> Shield of Wrath—>Virtue of justice—>Zealot’s defence—>Judges Intervention—>Smite condition.

Does around 19K AoE damage to heavies (3000 Armor) and an additional 9-11K damage to your primary target. Don’t expect too live for too much longer after that burst but it can force an entire team off of a point and kill the squishies who are caught off guard.

That’s really helpful, thanks. Never realized every class had some burst potential.

Is it fair to say ele/mesmer are still the better classes for burst from this list?

Rome.3192:

Every class has quite the ability to burst, but not every class is designed to be able to mitigate pressure when speccing as zerker. I’d say the best way to pick a class is to look at each of the play styles and see what you enjoy the most. Here’s a list of burst specs to start with, which can be altered based on whether you want more burst or defence:
1. Guardian – Meditations
2. Warrior – Kill Shot + Hundred Blades / Eviscerate
3. Thief – D/P Trickery
4. Engineer – Static Discharge
5. Ranger – Longbow
6. Necromancer – Power Death Shroud
7. Mesmer – Shatter
8. Elementalist – Fresh Air

Many classes maintain similar burst damage depending on how they are played.
Realistically the highest single bursts typically come from things such as fresh air eles and Thieves.

I myself main power necro and play it in high tourney play and can say that while I have a high amount of damage at one time I would generally not consider it “burst”. That goes with rangers, warriors, mesmers too. A true burst cannot be mitigated due to extreme speed and precision, it is easy to see the life blasts from a necro, easy to see the shatter coming from mesmer, easy to see the pokes from a ranger, or to dodge the swirls from a med guard, but impossible to get out of the way of the burst from a fresh air ele or skilled thief.