Guild Wars 2

Hey guys I want to put together a list of the best builds for new players who don’t yet own Heart of Thorns. Some of these are better in the current meta than others.
For those who need some credentials, I’m currently in Pro League and played when these builds were in use.

I’m listing by profession which does not indicate which profession is best but I’ll organize them roughly by what is most likely to be best. I do list the specs by rank within the profession heading starting with best at the top. I’ll make a note next to each one of how good it is in pvp now.

Also keep in mind that these specs are basically snapshots of last meta and there are probably some tweaks to be made to make them the most optimized now. Some of these articles might have been edited and suggest runes/sigils that are locked on Free to Play accounts. There should be variations you can play where you don’t need to unlock anything.
If you having trouble, try to find recent videos and stuff up. Can also tune into streams and ask people.

Feel free to discuss if you think something is better or worse than I say. Haven’t played any of these in new meta so hard to say in some areas. I’ll probably edit this list periodically.

Elementalist:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_Dagger/Dagger – Fairly strong node holder/duelist (not bunker). You’ll lose to things now but can probably hold your own in solo queue against many players.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_Celestial_Staff – Fairly tanky, has more ranged damage.

Engineer:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Marauder_Rifle – Still fairly strong, mostly just overshadowed.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Soldier_Rifle – The Tankier version if you need.

Necromancer:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Celestial_Signet – Tanky might-stacking spec. This is the best option for necro unless your team needs more damage. Can hold a node while your team rotates in, and still has okay dueling.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Standard_Power_Necro – Will probably get killed, needs support, but if you like power can play this. Does big damage.

Guardian:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Burst_Burning – Easy to play, kills noobs and people who you catch off-guard, but will lose to good players. High Burn damage.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Meditation_DPS_Variant – Power Damage variant. This might actually be better than burn but I put burn higher because it is more effective vs. bad players for less skill investment.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Bunker – If you need team support/bunker. Downside is that it’s slow and can’t kill anything.

Warrior:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_GS/Hammer – Fairly okay at team fighting. Pop that rampage and go in babyyyy. Has some decent damage during CC.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Greataxe – Has burst.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Shoutbow – The point holder/dueler spec.

Mesmer:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_PU_Shatter – This is like a worse D/P Thief in queues. Has higher burst damage out of stealth + portal that might make it more useful, but Thief might be better here.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_Condition_Shatter – More of a duelist spec, or if you like condis. Not super good in team fights.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_Mantra_Lockdown – If you want to embrace your inner Mesmer and mess with people, one of my favorite old specs.

Thief:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_Dagger/Pistol – This might be the best non-HoT spec individually. Problem is that Thief has a hard time dealing with the new HoT specs now. This spec requires a lot of mechanics that are not intuitive. I would recommend watching videos to figure everything out.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_Sword/Dagger – Not as good as D/P but has evading if you like that.

Ranger:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Power_Survival – Ranger might be the worst non-HoT choice overall, but if you have to play it try one of these specs. This one has a fairly high skill cap if you factor in needed positioning. It has decent damage.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_Carrion_Survival – This is more of the point holder ranger spec.

That’s very considerate of you to put the list together. I have a high appreciation for threads that intend to influence the community in a positive way.

On a HoT-less alt account with no to low MMR, I was able to reach Ruby strictly by soloQing with the soldier 2-kit rifle engie and d/d ele (if there were no DH on the other team)

So core specs are still good in the first 3 divisions. On Ruby, I’ve hit a huge wall and have quit using the alt account.

Do F2P people get access to this forum? If not, the list should still be shared on reddit and where ever F2P congregate.

Metabattle.com is one of the reasons pvp has gone to kitten. I’d say thanks for spreading the cancer.

A lot of these builds are still tuned to the old meta and would need some adjustments.

As for the list: Celestial staff is not “if you can’t play d/d”.
In the current meta, celestial staff is far stronger than d/d because it has far better group support. The advantage in offensive strength, d/d has to offer isn’t really all that strong when you consider, it has to measure up to revenant auto attacks and dragonhunter traps.

GS/Hammer simply can’t compete with the cc that’s currently around because it has ONLY cc, while any cc in the current meta is just as strong while having group support, instant cast and large AoE tacked on. It’s just silly to bring a cc focused build to a meta, where cc happens incidentally.
I found shoutbow to be really lackluster.
Add Greataxe to the list of warrior builds. It wrecks faces.

As you stated, Ranger is a horrible choice for non-HoT builds.

A friend of mine is currently tinkering with a boon corruption based carrion signet necromancer. It just eats tempests and revenants alive. Maybe once the testing is done, I will post it here.

Thanks naphack. These builds are definitely snapshots of old meta and need tweaking. Unfortunately there are no tweaked builds to be found unless someone updated the ones on metabattle. I’ll add the axe spec and you can contribute whatever spec you want.

naphack.9346:

A lot of these builds are still tuned to the old meta and would need some adjustments.

As for the list: Celestial staff is not “if you can’t play d/d”.
In the current meta, celestial staff is far stronger than d/d because it has far better group support. The advantage in offensive strength, d/d has to offer isn’t really all that strong when you consider, it has to measure up to revenant auto attacks and dragonhunter traps.

GS/Hammer simply can’t compete with the cc that’s currently around because it has ONLY cc, while any cc in the current meta is just as strong while having group support, instant cast and large AoE tacked on. It’s just silly to bring a cc focused build to a meta, where cc happens incidentally.
I found shoutbow to be really lackluster.
Add Greataxe to the list of warrior builds. It wrecks faces.

As you stated, Ranger is a horrible choice for non-HoT builds.

A friend of mine is currently tinkering with a boon corruption based carrion signet necromancer. It just eats tempests and revenants alive. Maybe once the testing is done, I will post it here.

Spite/curses/soul reaping?

Its something ive been playing around. The carrion frostfire build doesnt seem to pack enough condi transfer to deal with 2 mallyx revenants and, if the other team has a necro, its gg.

The DP thief build is a wvw one, this is the link to the old conquest build: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_Dagger/Pistol

Btw if anyone found something that should be changed/added, drop a comment either on this topic or even better, the build’s discussion page.

Good catch witcher, thanks!

Aenesthesia.1697:

naphack.9346:

A lot of these builds are still tuned to the old meta and would need some adjustments.

As for the list: Celestial staff is not “if you can’t play d/d”.
In the current meta, celestial staff is far stronger than d/d because it has far better group support. The advantage in offensive strength, d/d has to offer isn’t really all that strong when you consider, it has to measure up to revenant auto attacks and dragonhunter traps.

GS/Hammer simply can’t compete with the cc that’s currently around because it has ONLY cc, while any cc in the current meta is just as strong while having group support, instant cast and large AoE tacked on. It’s just silly to bring a cc focused build to a meta, where cc happens incidentally.
I found shoutbow to be really lackluster.
Add Greataxe to the list of warrior builds. It wrecks faces.

As you stated, Ranger is a horrible choice for non-HoT builds.

A friend of mine is currently tinkering with a boon corruption based carrion signet necromancer. It just eats tempests and revenants alive. Maybe once the testing is done, I will post it here.

Spite/curses/soul reaping?

Its something ive been playing around. The carrion frostfire build doesnt seem to pack enough condi transfer to deal with 2 mallyx revenants and, if the other team has a necro, its gg.

Can confirm. I’m a very experienced necro main and I’ve been looking into alternatives for the carrion reaper build. I like spite/curses/soulreaping with wanderer or carrion personally (though cele is still decent).

Spite/curses reaper builds count really hold together as well as they could so there wasn’t any point. I did make a viper-durability reaper build that a friend and I talked about for a bit, which makes up for less boon corrupt (no signets) with generally more condition pressure, and it does fairly well at killing bunker mesmers.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBLhZakjGasxObw4G4vxBuQRTj2IahtZAsAxtOf/AA-TZRHwAC3fIwRAAZZAAnAABPCAA

I ran this build after the specialization patch, when condi necro was in a sad state, and still found amazing success with it, so it should be even better since they buffed up scepter. I know dhuumfire isn’t that good on base necro, but I liked having another cover condition to use while my other skills were on CD. Should win against most other condi builds since you have 3 transfers and CoCo to heal.

I can only vouch for the medi dps guardian gs/scepter focus. Other builds you have mentioned are less powerful than their HoT counterparts. This game lacks balance so hard that it can perform drunken fist easily while trying to sleep.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlcThatY5VwALw6FL3FF4CGhBQ4EGQZmYB9D5AA-TJRGABAcBAYuMgBPAA03fAA

Very solid power based FT engie build, works quite nicely in yoloQ. I’m not sure if you need the expac to use runes of leadership without the xpac but strength runes are just as good, and a bit better for dps.

1. Marauder pew pew ranger (still my go to) IMO best sniper build out there including DH, only downside is you can’t really right on point in TEAM fights, 1v1 you can fight on point with GS

2. Anything warrior – no explanation needed

3. Cele ele – tempest still better tho

I have had success with this Mesmer spec:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8fl0nhG1YZawENwtGLrG05RSyzNnx0WRZEKeAA-TpQSgAA7PAWGAA

- Good ranged focus power and cleave in team fights with Mantra of Pain and GS, strong dueler
- Team support with Inspiration line
- Defense from both Chaos and Inspiration lines
- Healing capabilities and Protection uptime allow zerk amulet usage
- Build link uses pack runes, but several fill the slot. Vampirism could work. Not sure about Durability, that may be giving up too much damage.

It does not play like standard shatter mesmer. You have to wear your enemy down, take time with your GS moves and bait out those dodges and CDs by abusing your ranged offense. Make sure to land Mantra of Pain between dodges. Mantra management comes with practice of course. When enemy gets low, burst with typical shatter combo (GS2 + F1 + GS3 etc.) and add Mantra of Pain in there.

With Blink and PU, it also has strong decap potential if you rotate smart and can sneak out of team fights. Best non-elite spec I have used.

Edit: Gameplay example vs a Viper Rev https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M44v_nsymBk&feature=youtu.be

Video still processing sorry if its potato

I dont see many core builds in Ruby so it’s hard to say if they’re viable as you move on up the divisions.

cele ele cele necro shatter mesmer? other builds shouldnt be even considered half viable

Lurock Turoth.9085:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlcThatY5VwALw6FL3FF4CGhBQ4EGQZmYB9D5AA-TJRGABAcBAYuMgBPAA03fAA

Very solid power based FT engie build, works quite nicely in yoloQ. I’m not sure if you need the expac to use runes of leadership without the xpac but strength runes are just as good, and a bit better for dps.

You dont need to have the expac to buy the new set of runes/sigil/amulet

Top 3 for this meta:

Signet Celestial Necro.
DD ele.
Celestial staff ele.

Why? Conditions cleanses. Old meta spec worked out because of Bunker Guard and Shoutbow cleansing around.

Dal