Guild Wars 2

So, let me start by saying that this game is a blast. I am playing and thoroughly enjoying PvP. There is a ton of potential here and I’m excited about what’s to come.

Quick background on me. I’ve played all the BWE and been playing only PvP since the Head Start. I have tried all classes (i have 8 character slots; one for each prof) some more than others (rangers being the least). I immediately fell in love with the elementalist even though it is by far the most difficult, IMO, when compared to the others.

It took me at least three days of nonstop playing before I could get competitive with my Elementalist. I watched many streams and guides on how to even be effective. I now run my own concocted build (heavy defensive/healing with some burst) and I do very very well.

I say all that to say this: To beat players, I have to outskill them (which is why I LOVE the elementalist). A good player, no matter which prof, will always be a fun fight because I don’t really have the leg up with my profession, although I do have great escapability. Because my class relies heavily on skill I can quickly tell the inherent power in the other class over time because I can see there are always classes I struggle with and some that I just roll. I think this has less to do with the rock/paper/scissor effect and more to do with some classes needing balance. Here is my breakdown (in order of most powerful).

1. Mesmer – it gets to the point where I often just avoid these fights. A bad player will still cause me headaches sometimes and a good player is nearly impossible to beat.
2. Guardian – really depends on the trait/build here, but a defensive one is pretty amazing. The sceptor / shield sword / focus variety can be tough, a good mace spec can be tough. Again, as with most classes, the player will drastically effect the outcome.
3. Engineer – Very versatile and can be long fights. I never know what to expect going into one of those fights. I find myself surprised by the outcome quite often.
4. Theif – if you catch one before he catches you, they are pretty simple. The constant stealthy ones can be difficult to kill, but you can easily avoid death with them. Now, if they can get to you unprepared with their steal / backstab garbage, just be prepared to respawn.
5. Ranger – A good ranger is very tough. Very bursty / tanky / conditiony(lol) and if played right can be a force. I’ve seen many not so good ones though.
6. Necro – seem to be buggy and also very dependant on the player. I have seen some that are dominant, but many that are pushovers. If a necro is great at managing deathshroud and dots, they can be monsters in Tpvp.
7 – Elementalist – Some of the best players I’ve seen are Elementalists and that’s due to the very high skill cap. Most of the worst players I’ve seen are also elementalists for the same reason
8 – Warriors – Once I learned to dodge all of their burst moves (100b / kill shot / etc) they are pretty easy….which I learned to do about 45 minutes after playing PvP. Most other professions can do the same things a warrior can, but better.

I am at work and just thought I would give my 2cents on the current balance. I am by no means a professional PvPer. I have 170hours /age and almost all of that is in PvP.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

I agree elementalists have a high skillcap. I do however think they are somewhat unbalanced with the defensive builds they can do (as with guardians). Being a 75% offense, 25% defense thief (I dont run haste atm). I can’t bring a good one under 40%. They will always outlast me due to my limited survivability. I can last quite a while with stealth and withdraw, but my pressure is not enough.

guardians are worse because its basically a defensive elementalist with permanent retaliation, but overall it seems to be getting to the point where in a 5v5 I have to literally just avoid both classes and hope they arent stacked on the enemy team.

I like people like you who makes these statements. If Warrior gets buffed, I’m going to laugh at the pathetic QQ nerf because Warrior is actually really strong right now. Just that only a few people have the decency to actually look at the class’ potential.

Point is if you don’t know how the class works or have the decency to make any plays or proof via video, just don’t talk. You clearly don’t play Warrior to have a say in anything.

On topic regarding Warriors, I’ll be frank and say Warriors are WAY MORE forgiving than Thieves in competitive play. Feel free to disagree with me but I’ll simply say otherwise.

Ya, I run as heavy toughness/ healing with my 7/8/9 utitlies being combo breakers / dmg reduction. It’s so odd that I glass cannon builds seem to do less damage to me than some of the defensive guardian builds.

Schwahrheit.4203:

I like people like you who makes these statements. If Warrior gets buffed, I’m going to laugh at the pathetic QQ nerf because Warrior is actually really strong right now. Just that only a few people have the decency to actually look at the class’ potential.

Point is if you don’t know how the class works or have the decency to make any plays or proof via video, just don’t talk. You clearly don’t play Warrior to have a say in anything.

I’m not sure what you just did there. I clearly made a post that is about MY opinion and experience. Maybe warriors are beyond OP and a faceroll class. If that’s the case, I haven’t played anyone that has reached that level of skill. I play nonstop Tpvp and Spvp and warriors are pretty simple (imo). Their burst moves are easily avoided and their condition dmg is not even close to other classes. Again, it may very well be an Ele is rock to warrior scissors, not sure.

Edit: What makes them OP? Just curious.

There’s a difference between forgiving and over-powered. And the fact that no one in the right mind is obligated to gear up for 1v1. You think HB is the only viable warrior build? Ever heard of Condition DPS Long Bow + Rifle?

“Other classes do what Warrior’s do better” I laugh so hard at these statements cause Warrior got nerfed in the past for a reason and now their at a reasonable level. Just that Guardian still needs to be tweaked because any 5-year old kid can play a Guardian. That’s just how easy that class is.

Though as my last post I really don’t feel like talking. Just so Warriors get buffed for my personal amusement with posts like these.

Gawmbles.5308:

I agree elementalists have a high skillcap. I do however think they are somewhat unbalanced with the defensive builds they can do (as with guardians). Being a 75% offense, 25% defense thief (I dont run haste atm). I can’t bring a good one under 40%. They will always outlast me due to my limited survivability. I can last quite a while with stealth and withdraw, but my pressure is not enough.

guardians are worse because its basically a defensive elementalist with permanent retaliation, but overall it seems to be getting to the point where in a 5v5 I have to literally just avoid both classes and hope they arent stacked on the enemy team.

Trying to fight a bunker 1 on 1 on a point they control is not what you are supposed to do. A few builds can do it successfully in a reasonable time period but it is still better in most cases to attack with more than 1 person.

Schwahrheit.4203:

There’s a difference between forgiving and over-powered. And the fact that no one in the right mind is obligated to gear up for 1v1. You think HB is the only viable warrior build? Ever heard of Condition DPS Long Bow + Rifle?

“Other classes do what Warrior’s do better” I laugh so hard at these statements cause Warrior got nerfed in the past for a reason and now their at a reasonable level. Just that Guardian still needs to be tweaked because any 5-year old kid can play a Guardian. That’s just how easy that class is.

Though as my last post I really don’t feel like talking. Just so Warriors get buffed for my personal amusement with posts like these.

So, wait, you’re saying that professions get nerfed because forum posts? You don’t think that meta-data has everything to do with it?

Schwahrheit.4203:

There’s a difference between forgiving and over-powered. And the fact that no one in the right mind is obligated to gear up for 1v1. You think HB is the only viable warrior build? Ever heard of Condition DPS Long Bow + Rifle?

“Other classes do what Warrior’s do better” I laugh so hard at these statements cause Warrior got nerfed in the past for a reason and now their at a reasonable level. Just that Guardian still needs to be tweaked because any 5-year old kid can play a Guardian. That’s just how easy that class is.

Though as my last post I really don’t feel like talking. Just so Warriors get buffed for my personal amusement with posts like these.

I think you are missing a point entirely, but at the same time making yourself look like a kitten while doing it.

I play warrior as my main, in fact, 100% of my spvp matches currently are on my warrior (mainly since I played everything else in the betas)

As it stands warriors are balanced and good at their roles, but the point you are missing, is that other classes can indefinitely do those roles better.

imo it feels to me like the base classes (warrior, ranger and elementalist) were all created in a balanced and understandable manner, whereas every class that was tweaked after these were completed basically got those same principles, then improved.

Since you would like to go the warrior route, we can take a look at that:

Warrior roles come pretty standard, either DPS machine, bunker defense, roamer, and CC machine.

Pure burst damage is more efficient on a Thief or Mesmer for example

Guardians, certain elementalists and certain necro builds can actually out bunker a defense warrior as well if played correctly.

Thieves, rangers and mesmers make very good roamers

I don’t currently think there is anything that can out CC a warrior right now, so that is where (again imo) its strength lies.

With all these people running glass cannon warrior builds, yes they can do a lot of damage very fast…but that doesn’t help your team all that much most of the time, especially how easy it is to read and evade the telltale attacks. So that is why they are very strong against unskilled players, and very weak against good players (there is no balance in a spike warrior)

If the OP had fought perhaps a Hammer / Mace Mace warrior, or Shield, or just generally more CC based warrior they would have a much much harder time.

But in essence I agree that alot of what a warrior can do, other classes can just blatantly do better, but not everything. I think some of the other classes (see: Mesmer, Thief, Guardian) just need to be toned down a little bit so they aren’t so far on one side of the spectrum they are literally rocketing off it.

This is one of the best posts I have read on this site. Playing an ele myself I can pretty much agree with all of your observations.

I actually play a staff glass cannon that capitalizes on some earth bleed too. I find it very difficult to win a lot of 1-on-1s consistently mainly due to the fact that pubs lend towards a lot of players running sustain builds due to the higher glory potential (well that and thiefs). However, since the staff ele can kill 2 or 3 enemies about as fast as it can two, they are completely dominate in coordinated support roles but also require a lot of finesse to play. When I roll with a friend who is playing a similar sustain/healing/slight burst ele, we are very difficult to beat; its even worse if I’m playing with a good mesmer.

My other PvP main is a sustain mesmer which I honestly just play when the taxing skill level of my ele wears a little.

Again, great post!