Guild Wars 2

Hello all.

I am a brand new GW2 player that comes from the WoW arena scene and had a few questions. Most are relating to class balance and profession composition for tournament play. So, I suppose I should just start firing away…

I ask in streams about the current class balance and monitor the forums for the ever so conspicuous “OMG such and such profession is too good” threads.

- As far as I can tell, it seems the bulk of the complaining revolves around Necro’s. Would it be a fair assumption that they are over-tuned right now?

- What are “must have” professions for any competitive tournament team? Which aren’t really viable in tournament play? I am seeing Thief isn’t something you want to bring in your setup. Is that also a fair assessment?

- How often does class balance occur? When it does occur, are the changes heavy-handed?

- Generally speaking, do people on these forums tend to do a lot of baseless crying about this and that or are they pretty much on the mark normally?

Well, I think that pretty much covers it. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read and respond.

- Necro’s are indeed quite powerful right now, but seem on their way to a good spot
- A guardian mid bunker has been considered a “must have” for as long as I can remember, other classes have come and gone from the required comps. Overall it is more about the role than the class, and different comps can work fine as long as the necessary roles are filled. If you are asking about as of right now, guardian, necromancer, and ranger are in the majority of team comps.
-Class balance occurs about once a month, patches are twice a month with the second one usually being the balance patch.
- The forums are what they are. Some threads will be constructive discussions while others are mere qq’ing. Despite the qq threads the community is generally welcoming and helpful to new players!

If you need anything else check out the list of players helping new players or whisper me in game!

Thank you for the swift reply mrook. I do have one further question if you don’t mind. Since GW2 did away with the “trinity” of most MMO’s, any chance you could define what the roles you would to make sure you have covered? Thank you.

Hey there, figured I’d give my 2c as well.

- Necros are definitely a bit too strong right now

- Seriously, until you get to a certain level of play there are no must have professions. Learning how to rotate and keep the numbers in fights ever in your favor are the name of the game. That being said, once you get to higher level play, the main requirements are a Guardian midpoint and a Ranger backpoint with 3 variables, typically (now) a Necro/Thief/X or a more classic group would have a Mesmer/Ele/X. Guardian and Ranger have pretty much become staples though and I don’t foresee many changes that will shift that preference.

- Balance occurs about once a month and it is typically very slight and metered. A huge part of the outcry about Necros is that the last balance patch ArenaNet buffed them WoW-style: they received a lot at once and went from lower tier to apex predator.

- When you start to play you’ll see that many forum complaints come from inexperience, such as any complaints about a 100 blades warrior, for example, would generally come from a player who hasn’t played much pvp. Forums are forums, there’s no changing their nature really. Currently the complaints are pretty spot on, though, as Necros, S/D Evade Thieves, and Spirit Rangers provide a little too much with respect to the level of skill required to play them. It seems most forum users are aware of this and rightfully upset.

Hope you enjoy GW2 — its PvP is absurdly fun! Feel free to message me in game if you have any further questions

As rsq mentioned, in addition to the mid bunker role (usually a guardian) home bunker is quite important as well (more often than not a ranger). Beyond that it comes down to defining what each roamer’s job is on each map. This can differ from team to team, but usually includes which points they are supposed to help first, who responds to different secondary objectives, and who peels for who. At a base level a standard team comp is a mid bunker, home bunker and 3 roamers. (This is not to say this is the only way to do it, but rather a starting place) How exactly you use those roamers is up to you.