Guild Wars 2

I have a guardian and thief atm. The guardian I love playing when with friends as I enjoy a bunker spec, but I don’t enjoy it so much solo.

I don’t really like playing a cheesy backstab build so I run d/d & p/d bleed build but recently it seems every man and his dog has umpteen condition removals and as I only really reliably apply 1 condition it is a real pain.

With that in mind can anyone suggest a decent damage proffession/spec which has reasonable survivability (i.e. not full glass cannon spec) and is fun to play?

Cheers

Engi? Seems like a good cross between bunker and dmg is possible there.

Otherwise maybe a necro. They can be fun.

A mate of mine plays engi which oddly puts me off playing the same class as him.

How about between Ele and Mesmer?

Elemenetalist is fun if you have the right mindset, if not it will never work. Glass cannons are rare simply because thiefs do more burst. Commonly used are things like scepter/dagger using defensivelike builds and staff bunkers.
I didnt wanted to become bunker, i hate dealing zero damage even though it survives better, so i choose to abbandon the idea of tank-only ele and i really enjoy my staff elementalist atm.
Having ALOT of power, massive areadmg and alot of mobility is very awesome even though i might not be as tanky as bunker specced ones. (who cares about bunkering anyway. that aint fun). Elementalist does take alot of micromanagement, special computermouse might be recommended :P

You could take a small look at http://epic-timeraider.weebly.com/my-elementalist-build--guide.html if your interested in elementalist. I do not encourage you to copy the build though since i have had alot of people telling me they failed with it :P
But some of the general guidelines etc. are in there

Mesmers. Well, they are fun. Even if they go full glass cannon they still have nice survivability since mostly the only dmg they get really affected by is areadmg.
Mostly common nowadays are people who spec some stuff into some defensive part, to make sure they can withstand some of the burstdmg done nowadays and then go fully for shattering their illusions/phantasms. Shattering is a great way to apply real heavy dmg to an enemy combined with conditions and it makes sure you can cover their view with alot of particle effects and clones etc. making it easier to survive together with blink/stealth etc.

Both classes have a general amount of different builds, i know i only mentioned the ones i think are major atm and derived the professions from that, but still should give you a general outlining.

in general Mesmer is one who stays out of the fight, letting conditions, clones/phantasms and such things take care of the enemies and survives because of that. Elementalists run into an fight, usually get involved in everything and therefor rely more on their movement skills and avoidance.

Though both gain alot of complaints. 1 for being OP, 1 for being UP, neither of them deserves that status. They are both viable, both good to be build to the role you want them to be.

The only thing is they have a MAJOR difference in feel. In my opinion you can see a clear difference between Mesmer players and Elementalist players.

After all thise nonsense i would yust advise you to take 2 days. 1 day you play elementalist for a day, the other day you play Mesmer for a day.
Best is if you combine that with some small advice/recommendations from players who play those classes in PvP.

If you have any questions about Elementalists in general or with a Staff build, yust ask Warmage Timeraider :P
I do have slight knowledge of the other elementalist weapons, but since i have not mastered anything aside from my Staff build i wont be able to give stable advice about that

Thanks a lot for that Warmage. Exactly the sort of post I was looking for. I’ll take your advise and try out both professions for a day or two.

I think you hit the nail on the head there when you discussed the so playstyles. It’ll likely hinge on whether I am more comfortable being up close and personal or standing back and letting my clones do the work