Guild Wars 2

Goodday,

I have been playing almost all classes to some extend, with the sole exception to Ranger since I do not “feel” the class as much as other classes…

This however irked me a bit… Why the hell do I not play Ranger? To me the answer is simple, I feel as if “it lacks a role” – as if it is something shoved off the side…

So what are the classes in GW2? What are their roles?

My personal experience is:

- Warrior; Typical Brute, master of everything to some extend, typical frontliner, good 1v1’er and proper guy to have in a teamfight. Not meant as your burst class or support, but can be played as such at the cost of something…

- Guardan; Totally not a Monk, but actually very much is. Almost no sane team runs without a guardian with a good reason – it is the master of support, literally outclassing any who attempt to do so. It has been debated whether it is healthy to have a class providing so much for this one niche, but meh, not going into that. Can be build as a powerful burst class, or sustained fighter with current celestial+might combo, but falls short compared the other classes who do so…

- Engineer; Jack of all trades, though most popular with grenades/bombs, or the now rising turret build. I love my Engineer when playing it, there is a certain synergy that can only be achieved with Elementalist imho, and it is so much fun. Sadly, I do feel as if their role is a bit weird… I have no words to explain it, but for now I will just say reliable fighter as in damage, and rather decent in holding points when specced correctly, though not against all classes…

- Thief; Typical burst, or do I need to say “Neigh Perfect”? They are not though, some thief builds are extremely suspicable to AoE, and can be extremely punishing in certain AoE heavy fights. They are like birds of prey, they are meant to watch, and strike at the right moment… Or something like that, there are some flaws in that regard that need to be worked out…

- Ranger; The “someone to blame for our loss” class, Okay, sorry, this was not serious at all, but still… Got nothing on ranger… Decent soft support in the form of spirits I guess? Severely limited mobility imho though… Decent point holders, but get outclassed by many imho…

- Necromancer; Dangerous Debunker, screw those who say that Necromancers have fallen out of the meta, I love mine the most out of everything I play in PvP. Necromancers are the class for debunking, simply because of one key thing; Boon Corruption. This is awesome! Like literally, there is no greater pleasure in taking away the sustain of many classes like that – of course, The Necromancer suffers a lot from its own succes, since they are the worst when it comest to teamfights, they are easy to spot, easy to focus and easy to kill, without them ever having a proper option to escape (DS being the worst offender)… Rather well in some 1v1’s, extremely rubbish in range…

- Mesmer; Dangerous Deb- wait, I love it when people are like “The kitten hit me” after I shatter them to death – it is extremely sattisfying up untill the point a random Thief shows up and shows you who is boss… Not too sure about the Mesmer’s real role – it debunks quite well, but needs probably more babysitting than a Necromancer. Has Port which is Awesome, but needs the right player to utitilize it. Not suited for staying on the point, but arguably the best class in range…

- Elementalist; The other allrounder, who surrendered some toughness and health for a ton of mobility. Yes! Pure sattisfaction when playing this class, you can be everywhere, everything and fill just that right role you need at that very moment! Though, unlike popular believes, has some weaknesses which can be exploited by the right classes – it relies heavily on boons you see? Still, a potent 1v1, fighter, good soft support that outclasses many other’s (engineer, ranger) and good self sustain options…

So what is your take on the classes? Does it differ from mine? Do things need to be changed? Is Ranger really that poor now? Discuss, this intrigues me…

nowadays i only warrior (3 games of hotjoin per day) and in the past, i played some necromancer and mesmer. the others, not so much.

well, i agree with what you wrote though.

as for ranger, well, ranger can deal ridiculous amount of damage if they are build for it and played right.

You pretty much covered all the Conquest-specific roles, but I for one would love to see ANet enable classes to fulfil more than one role. Currently, as you point out, Warriors, Engis, and eles are the ones best able to do this. They’ve also made it easier for Guardians to play more offensive roles with the April patch, though they’re still not as flexible as the other 3. I’d like to see the other classes gain that sort of flexibility too. Within reason of course: I don’t expect to ever be able to play a Thief as a mid-bunker, obviously!

I do not entirely agree on Guardian’s role. Yes, most of the times you see one in a rated arena team, but having experienced several matches that pure roamer groups can outrun teams with 2~3 guardians~
but you’re right that this class is too professional in the supporting role. Literally able to tank for and heal the entire group at the same time. Not so balanced, no.

I agree on the Ranger’s part. It seems that the balance team (assuming there is one) brought the class way too low in the attempt to nerfing Spirit Ranger, so while that spec and condi builds (i.e. Shortbow, Axe/Torch) are sort of balanced right now, the rest of Ranger is just underpowered. Greatsword ranger is supposed to be THE tanky spec for this class but for reasons unknown to me the class is able to fulfill this role in PvE but totally not so in PvP

Ya… that seems about right.

Well to get something going on then…

How can we get the Ranger back into the game without hurting other classes? What niche can it fill!

I am sure there is an answer to it… there must be!

GoogleBrandon.5073:

Well to get something going on then…

How can we get the Ranger back into the game without hurting other classes? What niche can it fill!

I am sure there is an answer to it… there must be!

not so hard, just merge 4-6 traits, and make the 5% more damage buffs become 10% more damage like almost every other class.

As to what needs merging?
Martial Mastery + two hand mastery (becomes master in Wilderness line)
Eagle Eye + Read the Wind (becomes GM)
Signet of the Beastmaster and Beastmasters Might (becomes Master)

Then you gotta do following for our Pet DPS;
All pets +10% auto attack damage
Then make the following traits a “basic” pet function;
Alpha Training (optionally, can be merged with opening strikes)
Agility Training
Carnivorous Appetite (remake to 50% chance on critical hit to steal 350 HP)
Masters Bond (passive stacking of +40 stats to pet for each kill. Think of it as a “stacking sigil on a weapon”)

Oh and one more thing; Heal as One – Reduce CD by 5 seconds, stun breaker, removes Immob, chilled and crippled.

Do this and power builds would be perfectly fine. Actually, most ranger builds would, as we wouldn’t be lagging too far behind in terms of DPS.

GoogleBrandon.5073:

Well to get something going on then…

How can we get the Ranger back into the game without hurting other classes? What niche can it fill!

I am sure there is an answer to it… there must be!

Buff us, remove leash range.

Eurantien.4632:

GoogleBrandon.5073:

Well to get something going on then…

How can we get the Ranger back into the game without hurting other classes? What niche can it fill!

I am sure there is an answer to it… there must be!

Buff us, remove leash range.

or atleast increase leash range to 3500 rather then 2000. Atleast then it will be barely too short to fight on two nodes at the same time.

Where it was before was fine, it allowed the ranger to be the only class to “split” dps between nodes. The only issue with it was that ranger could be out of combat while pet kept enemies in combat, just make it so if 1 is in combat, both ranger and pet are in combat… This won’t happen. Been suggested many times though…

GoogleBrandon.5073:

- Ranger; The “someone to blame for our loss” class

Made me laugh.
Good read, can’t think of anything to add

Saw the livestream yesterday – Congratulations Rangers, from what I saw, I got really excited to get my hands on one again

Engineer changes look cool as well, Tool Kit and AED stole the show for me, though most people were arguably more excited for Flamethrower

What I loved the most about yesterday’s stream was the emphasis on power, if anything will change this thread majorly is a shift in power rather than those horrible bunker/power specs… I am legitly excited to play in a couple of months again :P