Guild Wars 2

What do you guys consider to be the top/low tier classes/builds at this point? Consider their efficiency overall and/or at the roll they play. And on the other hand, which classes/builds have the highest or lowest skill ceiling or floor respectively (ease of play)?

I haven’t played every class enough to give an accurate answer to both of these, but I’ll make something just for the purpose of starting the thread.

These are from best/most at top to worst/least at bottom.

Tier List

Warrior (Hammer + Longbow, Mace/Sword + Longbow Condi, Mace/Shield + Greatsword)

Necromancer (Staff + Scepter/Dagger Condi)

Ranger (Spirit)

Engineer (HGH)

Guardian (Staff + Hammer Bunker, DPS Greatsword + Scepter or Sword/Focus)

Thief (Most weapons/builds are viable outside of P/P imo)

Mesmer (Greatsword + Sword/Pistol Shatter) [Staff + Scepter/Torch PU Condi doesn’t belong in competitive play imo]

Elementalist (Staff, S/D Burst, S/F Burst, D/D Bunker)

Aaaaaandd..

Skill Floor/Ceiling List (Same builds as previous list)

Engineer

Elementalist

Thief

Guardian

Mesmer

Necro

Ranger

Warrior

I guess the point of the thread is to get a feel for the community’s opinion on balance in terms of risk/reward. It’s a shame to feel like the most rewarding classes/builds are the ones that are easiest to learn and/or play. I can understand in a sense why many of the professional teams have left; it just doesn’t really feel worth it to invest time into becoming competitive anymore.

I’m not attempting to bring more “doom and gloom”; if anything was to come from this thread I’d like to encourage aNet developers to not only focus on making classes on par with each other when you balance them, but to also keep in mind the risk/reward factor when balancing as well. I know it’s definitely not an easy job, but I and a lot of other players still retain hope that the general dilemma can be fixed.

I’d argue that guard is actually the highest tier class in tpvp game. Succesfull “high end” tournament teams without guard are fairly rare. It is the only class that really is almost a mandatory in any “serious” team.

Engineer HGH is not that viable in comparison to grenadier or condi bomber.
Ele staff is the worst pvp weapon and the best build would be fresh air scepter focus.

Classes skill requirement (most to least)
Elementalist – lots of mediocre skills with a class of low survivability . Can be extremely powerful if used properly.
Engineer – poor dps setups with stun breakers and condi clear available by sacrificing skills. Gameplay on this class requires close attention to everything.
Guardian – although this is intentionally a support class, the guardian needs skillful players to maintain points against constant damage and making the right decisions for example if rezzing someone is worth it or not or popping which skills for the best situation.
Mesmer – its sacrifice in traits for dps over survivability makes the mesmer have plenty of counters such as thieves , warriors, rangers and necromancers of equal skill.
Thief – 2222222222222222222222222/33333333333333333333333333333 Except for the few odd who play exceptionally well. With the damage being so high the skill in this class is survivability.
Necromancer – spamming fear is all you need to do, necros have 2 health bars and have constant burst unlike engineers or elementalists or mesmers.
Warrior – lots of viable builds hard to kill than most classes while dealing lots of damage. This class is 2nd banana for passive gameplay.
Ranger – any noob can outplay anyone this is a terrible class . King of lowest skill related class, this is only seriously used by unskilled people or trolls.

Could be ranger 2nd if it wasnt for spirits

S/P thief worst weapon set until further notice.

Top performing classes

Necromancer
Warrior
Ranger
Engineer
Guardian
Thief
Mesmer
Elementalist

Skill requirement for performing well

Engineer
Elementalist
Mesmer
Thief
Guardian
Ranger
Necromancer
Warrior

Now compared to other MMOs, all classes in Guild Wars 2 are fairly simple. So being good isn’t all that difficult.

The only big offenders in my book are currently Warriors and Necromancers. Warriors are just so forgiving and easy to play that they are far too effective in the hands of an average player.

Necromancers are in a similar place. They might not be quite as simplistic but they too are essentially a class with training-wheels attached at all times thanks to a massive effective health pool and easy AoE conditions.

Dee Jay.2460:

Necromancers are in a similar place. They might not be quite as simplistic but they too are essentially a class with training-wheels attached at all times thanks to a massive effective health pool and easy AoE conditions.

Just to clarify, do you mean all Necros, or just the meta (30/20/0/0/20) Dumbfire build?

I like how only the ranger spirit build is even considered when the class is mentioned. :/
The Berserker and Beastmaster builds can be as successful as any of the other non-meta builds but are much more difficult due to the pet control and lack of passive defense that spirit rangers don’t have issues with.

Standard dhuumfire necros are mid-tier at best. They’re great for tossing some marks and spamming scepter auto in hotjoin; you’d better know what you’re doing in a solo queue; in a team queue you’ll get demolished if your teammates don’t peel focus fire off of you really, really fast. They’re essentially what d/d thieves were a while back. Everyone knows they’re easy to deal with, but people keep hating them for another couple months anyway.

I’m not saying to only balance for the top-tier players, but the community can officially stop hating necros any time.