Guild Wars 2

My tier list from 6 months ago
S Tier:
=Necromancer
=S/D Thief
-Spirit Ranger
A Tier:
+Guardian
-Engineer
B Tier:
=Warrior
= Elementalist
-Mesmer

And then my tier list from 8 months ago
Tier S: none
Tier A: Ranger +
Mesmer +
Elementalist=+
Engineer=
Thief=
Guardian=
Necro -
Warrior-
Tier B: none
Tier C: none

I know what you are thinking. “Whoa Phantaram looks like you had a very positive view about GW2s balance 8 months ago” And you’d be right. I rated necro and warrior the worst at that time, which was easily agreed upon community wide. Yet the two top teams on EU at the time both used 1 of these classes maybe only just a month before I made this tier list, and we both only dropped these classes because people started discovering beastmaster ranger. We used a Necro and Team Curse at the time (Helseth, Lowell, Danto, Fredzw, Hyxorcisten,) used a warrior.

The 2 worst classes were being played on the two top teams. Just let that sink in for a moment.

Then you can see how divided my tier list became after the necro burning patch(6 months ago). The rules of the game we had all played dun changed after this patch.

Just thought this would be interesting for people to look at.

So how would you rate these classes today, I am curious.

I don’t understand the symbols beside the classes, and the respective importance of Tier S,A,B. Mind explaining since I did not read your thread from 8 months ago?

And yet we continue to insist that balance changes are made too small and too slow.

As far as I can tell, the only thing that changed in the middle of 2013 was that Anet listened to us when we said that warriors and necros needed massive buffs, and that we were tired of waiting on the slow stream of small buffs they had been getting before that (especially warriors).

xoom.4918:

I don’t understand the symbols beside the classes, and the respective importance of Tier S,A,B. Mind explaining since I did not read your thread from 8 months ago?

S – superior, A – average, B – below average….or something like that…+ bit better, – bit worse compared to other classes in the tier…= average for the tier

But Warriors were buffed 6 months ago too.

The problem is the two worst classes (warrior and necro) were overbuffed IMHO.

redslion.9675:

But Warriors were buffed 6 months ago too.

The problem is the two worst classes (warrior and necro) were overbuffed IMHO.

The worst classes were overbuffed and the best one (ele?) was overnerfed.

Sadly, anet doesn’t have a clue about balancing.

cause arenanet shaving
http://www.traktorpool.de/media/cms/serp/128/Claas-Maehdrescher.jpg?width=539&quality=70

1x per year^^

Marcos.3690:

redslion.9675:

But Warriors were buffed 6 months ago too.

The problem is the two worst classes (warrior and necro) were overbuffed IMHO.

The worst classes were overbuffed and the best one (ele?) was overnerfed.

Sadly, anet doesn’t have a clue about balancing.

IMHO, warriors should have been buffed into 2 categories:

condition removing (this only given the buffs to necro and condi meta. If you removed them, then only a slight buff would have been needed)

and damage. This to remain true to how warrior worked until that point. You could build with more armor and vitality, but the object was always clear: kill the enemy fast.

Instead they buffed the Signet, turning into: outlast the enemy.

They got condi cleansing right, but it’s still wrong because condi builds are also wrong.

IMHO one of these problems is that some condi setups can have both damaging and controlling conditions. This means they deal high damage while shutting down melee opponents. This is the main reason why they gave warriors cleansing ire and berserker stance. If condi builds weren’t that strong, those buffs wouldn’t have been needed.

The tiers for 8 months ago (Curse tournament) were like this:

S Tier
Thief
Ranger
Elementalist

A Tier
Engineer
Guardian
Mesmer

B Tier
Necro

C Tier
Warrior

I do remember people overestimating Mesmer and undervaluing Thief back then, though (probably due to lack of good thieves). Necro couldn’t 1v1 well and had to be built around to be useful (condi spams with Engi), and Warriors went from bad to useless post quickness nerf till god patch.

I disagree highly with that kensuda. Mesmer was definitely top top tier with focus pull and thief was losing usefulness very quick. Vanish on helseths team stopped running thief right before the necro patch because lightning flash -> double arcane would instakill a thief every time so he was never safe to go into a fight. Xeph started using a greatsword at that time too (which wasn’t as common as staff) and could zone a thief out very easy from 1200 range.

Mesmer focus pull was like 50% of how all kills happened during that meta so naturally mesmer was top with ranger.

Phantaram.1265:

I disagree highly with that kensuda. Mesmer was definitely top top tier with focus pull and thief was losing usefulness very quick. Vanish on helseths team stopped running thief right before the necro patch because lightning flash -> double arcane would instakill a thief every time so he was never safe to go into a fight. Xeph started using a greatsword at that time too (which wasn’t as common as staff) and could zone a thief out very easy from 1200 range.

Mesmer focus pull was like 50% of how all kills happened during that meta so naturally mesmer was top with ranger.

Totally agree here.

Thief was highly underperforming back then ( no trickery, no S/D, mug nerfed) so its burst was not higher than double arcane eles, with less group utility and sustain.

The only reason to have a thief in your team was shadow refuge for stealth oneshots, but mesmers/engies togheter were able to cover that role quite well so thief was not needed at all ( even underperforming).

Wait, s/d thief existed in curse tournament, though (Jumper). Focus pull was insane, I admit, but a great Thief could shut down Mesmer pretty hard. Looking back more closely, I see this was the period right after the mug nerf, in which case my placement of non s/d Thief was wrong. Before that, though, d/p had good chances of shutting down a Mesmer IMO.

In any case, Mesmer placement aside, I really do think that Necro and Warrior were farther off from playable in that time period than how you presented them. Some buffing was warranted, I just think they went overboard with it.

It’s funny that Necro became OP when they were given more burst damage, while the community kept screaming for sustain and survival options.
Weird how that happened huh?

And then 1 week later Dhuumfire got hotfix nerfed because of the all important PAX tournament. who could have seen THAT one coming?

Guardian, mesmer, ele, thief, +1 other class (almost everything worked here) best meta.