Guild Wars 2

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

Jjaja.7218:

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

• Ranger isn’t seen on the list. Ironic.

Sorry couldn’t resist pointing that out, lol.

Braxxus.2904:

Jjaja.7218:

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

• Ranger isn’t seen on the list. Ironic.

Sorry couldn’t resist pointing that out, lol.

Fixed! Thanks

Jjaja.7218:

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

Couldn’t agree on this more.

I like how ranger isn’t even on the 2nd list….I main ranger

from a tpvp perspective I mostly agree with what you posted except I feel like the most important classes for a team are:

1. guardian
2. mesmer
3. necromancer
4. elementalist
5. whatever

wouldn’t mind a small nerf or fix to mesmers as there is no strong competition for side point holder considering their portal and they are an overall great class and good in 1v1s, just makes it feel like you cant run a team without one. The recent buffs they got were completely unnecessary.

Demon.7832:

wouldn’t mind a small nerf or fix to mesmers as there is no strong competition for side point holder considering their portal and they are an overall great class and good in 1v1s, just makes it feel like you cant run a team without one. The recent buffs they got were completely unnecessary.

I feel the same way, but when it comes to fun i actually prefer playing with and against mesmer side bunkers because it makes games way more entertaining than dealing with a 2nd bunker on side point on both teams.

Rangers balanced? JaJaJa…

Really the only thing I would contend with is that you have mesmers as balanced… in the same tier basically with necros and rangers. All I can say is “wut?!”
They’re right up there with ele/guard/thief. Great in 1v1’s, great side bunkers, great team support, great group damage, great burst, great survivability… There’s not a single thing mesmers are bad at besides ele/thief style mobility sprints.

I would love OP to make some elaboration on engineers … . Not that I am offended by it or anything, I am just curious.
When I see Magz or Teldo play, they don’t strike me as particular weak. But when I compare builds on my necro and engineer, it does seem as if I don’t bring enough to the table. Maybe it is just me preferring the group-utility a necro has … We are btw talking support-builds here.

Well from my personal experience Elementalists arent such popular class. Yes we have more players than engies,rangers or necros but i see way more people playing thiefs,warrios and mesmers than i see playing elementalists. Just my observation thou

FLFW.3105:

Well from my personal experience Elementalists arent such popular class. Yes we have more players than engies,rangers or necros but i see way more people playing thiefs,warrios and mesmers than i see playing elementalists. Just my observation thou

and how many eles are without D/D? seems like only D/D is strong

MaXi.3642:

FLFW.3105:

Well from my personal experience Elementalists arent such popular class. Yes we have more players than engies,rangers or necros but i see way more people playing thiefs,warrios and mesmers than i see playing elementalists. Just my observation thou

and how many eles are without D/D? seems like only D/D is strong

Not so many ofc. But i guess is because of then you play with random pugs you can only count on yourself and currently D/D is best for solo play.

Apart from a bunker, mesmers are the number one class that a team is required to have.
Mesmers brings so much utility to a team, not to mention they have amazing burst,survivability,mobility and control, that a team without them would be hindering themselves.

Time Warp in a team fight,especially the first one, can win you the entire game.
A mesmer defending a side point with Portal can bring back and forth between two points the entire team to defend wherever it is necessary.
Also it can be used to instantly repair trebuches, negating the travel time required that is supposed to be the reward to the opposite team for spending their time destroying it.

For me Mesmer is: Very High / Very Strong

In my opinion

Profession Representation In NA:

First data:a week ago
Second data: last week
Guardian 100% to 100%
Elementalist 100% to 100%
Necromancer 80% to 65%
Mesmer 80% to 80%
Thief 65% to 55%
Ranger 35% to 60%
Warrior 35% to 35%
Engineer 5% to 5%

Not including Free tournaments

Also, if u meet that 5% Engineers, congratulation, u will have 90% chance to win this game.

the dumb thing about this game is if you remove one utility (portal) and one elite (time warp) from mesmer they would drop to worst. That’s how dumb this game is. Two slots make them from never take, to required. I play a mesmer too heh.

OneManArmy.5617:

Apart from a bunker, mesmers are the number one class that a team is required to have.
Mesmers brings so much utility to a team, not to mention they amazing burst,survivability,mobility and control, that a team without them would be hindering themselves.

Time Warp in a team fight,especially the first one, can win you the entire game.
A mesmer defending a side point with Portal can bring back and forth between two points the entire team to defend wherever it is necessary.
Also it can be used to instantly repair trebuches, negating the travel time required that is supposed to be the reward to the opposite team for spending their time destroying it.

For me Mesmer is: Very High / Very Strong

I believe Mesmers are balanced. Time Warp and Portal have VERY long cooldowns. It’s far too easy to “pop” a portal by just going to the Mesmer’s node with a Thief. They’re great at 1v1, sure, but so are Guardians, Elementalists, and Rangers.

Great post I am glad to see a top player voice their opinions… it is nice to see at the top level of play the game is a lot more balanced than it seems from the PuG free tournament scene.

The list means nothing, condi necros are fine and the hybrid build is a stupid trashy build. Power necros need a buff. Engineers are fine, people can’t utilize them properly though. Time warp is not balanced.

Oblivion.8307:

The list means nothing, condi necros are fine and the hybrid build is a stupid trashy build. Power necros need a buff. Engineers are fine, people can’t utilize them properly though. Time warp is not balanced.

Engineers are not fine in the slightest. They don’t bring anything another profession can’t do better. The top teams usually pioneer new compositions and strategies; I have yet to see one include an Engineer.

Buffing power Necromancers would mean buffing the hybrid build that is standard in tournaments; it would be too strong. If you read my weapon swap change section, I think it’s more of a weapon set problem than anything else.

No it wouldn’t, it’d require buffing the dagger, axe and features the power necro lacks at the moment. The hybrid build is trash, it’s the only reason warriors are viable at the moment.

Engineers maybe need a buff to their power spec, however the toolkit is amazing at the moment especially on a condi engineer. They stack confusion better than any profession in the game (aside from mesmers, but how many mesmers are condi?) and bring a wide variety of crowd control, and Elixir R.

Being Top 10 QP may give you unique insight into what top teams are running, but unfortunately, it does not reduce your bias. I’m sure Arena Net has backend analytics that are more accurate than players’ gut assessments (I hope). And I hope that once we get some ranked games, and eventually stats, we’ll have more concrete information to sink our teeth into.

Jjaja.7218:

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

You can’t base your perception of balance on your experience as a necro only. It is irrelevant how many QP you got, if you only play 1-2 professions you can’t possibly understand what’s balanced or not. I regularly play 5 profs (keep one slot for tryouts) and still i feel there’s more i needed to learn from prof X or Y. The classes i play most are Ranger, Mesmer and Elementalist (kinda been slacking on my guardian and thief lately). I must say, i strongly disagree with your acessment. This is my opinion:

Mesmer: VERY strong.

Yes, i used caps there on purpose. Anyone that does not see this as the very best prof needs to properly play one. In the hands of a good PvPer – and i think of myself as one, with over 17 years of PvP on all genres on my belt – it’s a mean killing machine. And support machine. And escape artist. So powerful it hurts.

Guardian: Very Strong

Not a mesmer, but still a very powerful profession with a wide range of viable specs.

Thief: Very Strong

Properly played thieves are not only very dangerous finishers with huge burst but also amazing at evading/harassing and closing distances aswell as very good stompers and rezzers. Anyone that thinks they’re not top notch needs some serious lessons on combat dynamics.

Elementalist: Strong

While the Ele bunker specs (and downed state) are a bit too strong at the moment they do tend to be dead rather quickly when specced otherwise. Can be deadly vs some combos but facing a player that knows the class they can be easy prey as DPS. Hybrid specs can be a real menace in the right hands though.

Necromancer: Balanced

Necros still have some issues that need to be addressed but overall it’s a class that’s very close to being balanced.

Ranger: Balanced

Before the latest patch i’d disagree but from my experience since the 14th the Ranger has indeed been buffed to a point that i’d say it’s close to being balanced. A lot of issues still with pet pathing, bugged abilities and perhaps the class that needs the more focus to play and be successful with as pure DPS.

Warrior: Wouldn’t call it weak, but a bit limited at the moment. Their ability to quickly shift the weight of battles can be decisive when played properly but i’ll admit, could do with a bit more variety.

Engineer: Since the latest patch i’ve faced some really dangerous Engis and since i don’t play the class, i’ll leave it to whoever does to judge.

The problem I’ve seen with making Engineers more viable in tPvP is that there are always Guardians with AoE stability, and the only thing Engineers do better than any other class are knockbacks/blowouts/knockdowns.

I would still swap the places of Ranger/Engineer on that balance list, and also Thief/Mesmer. To me it feels more like:

1) Guardian
2) Elementalist/Mesmer
3) Thief/Necro/Engineer
4) Warrior/Ranger

This, however, is based on free tournament play, and I know I’m obviously nowhere near top level play.

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

nobody on necro forums is crying for a buff. They have 1 viable build in tpvp. People are asking for FIXES.

-Minion AI – broken
-siphon builds – worthless
-axe – never used
-most bugs of any class,
-etc.

so they are balanced for the 1 viable build they have, good info bro.

Sprawl.3891:

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

nobody on necro forums is crying for a buff. They have 1 viable build in tpvp. People are asking for FIXES.

-Minion AI – broken
-siphon builds – worthless
-axe – never used
-most bugs of any class,
-etc.

If you read my original post carefully you would have noticed I said every class needs its bug fixes. There’s about three different viable tPvP builds for necromancers; I personally use two of them. Please also read my weapon swap change section… I said it should be kept until all or the majority of weapon sets are viable for all professions.

Not every weapon, trait, spell, or elite will be viable. There’s too many spells per profession for that. League of Legends can’t even get it right with only four spells per champion. You might be asking for too much.

Jjaja.7218:

Oblivion.8307:

The list means nothing, condi necros are fine and the hybrid build is a stupid trashy build. Power necros need a buff. Engineers are fine, people can’t utilize them properly though. Time warp is not balanced.

Engineers are not fine in the slightest. They don’t bring anything another profession can’t do better. The top teams usually pioneer new compositions and strategies; I have yet to see one include an Engineer.

Buffing power Necromancers would mean buffing the hybrid build that is standard in tournaments; it would be too strong. If you read my weapon swap change section, I think it’s more of a weapon set problem than anything else.

Ok .. I guess, that was the answer I was looking for
And yes, I agree. It is not, that engineers are horrible, they just don’t bring anything anyone else can’t bring along with more. You can be a great engineer, but chances are you would basically be an even better ranger or necro-mancer.

Jjaja.7218:

Sprawl.3891:

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

nobody on necro forums is crying for a buff. They have 1 viable build in tpvp. People are asking for FIXES.

-Minion AI – broken
-siphon builds – worthless
-axe – never used
-most bugs of any class,
-etc.

If you read my original post carefully you would have noticed I said every class needs its bug fixes. There’s about three different viable tPvP builds for necromancers; I personally use two of them. Please also read my weapon swap change section… I said it should be kept until all or the majority of weapon sets are viable for all professions.

Not every weapon, trait, spell, or elite will be viable. There’s too many spells per profession for that. League of Legends can’t even get it right with only four spells per champion. You might be asking for too much.

i read the op, my response was you saying necros are crying for buffs, they aren’t. They are asking for fixes which piegon hole them on all aspects of the game not just WvW. nobody uses axe anywhere, nobody uses minion anywhere, nobody uses siphon builds anywhere. 2 of our train lines main idea (minion and siphon) are bad for every aspect of the game. It would be like a mesmer having shatters and clones never used and only phantasams working properly.

And what are the 3 builds you use? power/cond, balance/cond, and glass cond? lolk

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

Yeah, like many other have already said you couldn’t be more wrong about this jjaja. The forums are not crying for buffs, all people are asking for is a little bit of attention from the devs to fix the numerous bugs and blatant fails of minions and life siphon. Having two trait trees that are almost completely useless is mind boggling. Even more so since it’s been this way since release.

Bloodbath.7084:

Jjaja.7218:

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

You can’t base your perception of balance on your experience as a necro only. It is irrelevant how many QP you got, if you only play 1-2 professions you can’t possibly understand what’s balanced or not. I regularly play 5 profs (keep one slot for tryouts) and still i feel there’s more i needed to learn from prof X or Y. The classes i play most are Ranger, Mesmer and Elementalist (kinda been slacking on my guardian and thief lately). I must say, i strongly disagree with your acessment. This is my opinion:

Mesmer: VERY strong.

Yes, i used caps there on purpose. Anyone that does not see this as the very best prof needs to properly play one. In the hands of a good PvPer – and i think of myself as one, with over 17 years of PvP on all genres on my belt – it’s a mean killing machine. And support machine. And escape artist. So powerful it hurts.

Guardian: Very Strong

Not a mesmer, but still a very powerful profession with a wide range of viable specs.

Thief: Very Strong

Properly played thieves are not only very dangerous finishers with huge burst but also amazing at evading/harassing and closing distances aswell as very good stompers and rezzers. Anyone that thinks they’re not top notch needs some serious lessons on combat dynamics.

Elementalist: Strong

While the Ele bunker specs (and downed state) are a bit too strong at the moment they do tend to be dead rather quickly when specced otherwise. Can be deadly vs some combos but facing a player that knows the class they can be easy prey as DPS. Hybrid specs can be a real menace in the right hands though.

Necromancer: Balanced

Necros still have some issues that need to be addressed but overall it’s a class that’s very close to being balanced.

Ranger: Balanced

Before the latest patch i’d disagree but from my experience since the 14th the Ranger has indeed been buffed to a point that i’d say it’s close to being balanced. A lot of issues still with pet pathing, bugged abilities and perhaps the class that needs the more focus to play and be successful with as pure DPS.

Warrior: Wouldn’t call it weak, but a bit limited at the moment. Their ability to quickly shift the weight of battles can be decisive when played properly but i’ll admit, could do with a bit more variety.

Engineer: Since the latest patch i’ve faced some really dangerous Engis and since i don’t play the class, i’ll leave it to whoever does to judge.

Engie is kinda weak, but its biggest issue is the fact it has little room for error and you end up with the same kind of build all the time. They are not worthless by any leap of the imagination, but if you were building a team, another class would be better.

As for your comment about warrior, its spot on. They CAN be powerful for a few seconds, but they are kind of a one trick pony.

Ranger is good, not OP, not UP, just about right.

Khalifahaze.6045:

Yeah, like many other have already said you couldn’t be more wrong about this jjaja. The forums are not crying for buffs, all people are asking for is a little bit of attention from the devs to fix the numerous bugs and blatant fails of minions and life siphon. Having two trait trees that are almost completely useless is mind boggling. Even more so since it’s been this way since release.

But khalifa lots of classes have bugs and useless traits, i mean i play ranger and the only build i can convince myself to play is traps. And i agree that, there should be more than one way to play each class competitively but at the moment that isnt really possible.

And from a balance perspective these useless traits and bugs dont have a large impact on balance because they’re not seen. Unless something is blatantly overpowered it wont receive a lot of attention and be fixed ASAP. It will take time to bring things up to viability.

Khalifahaze.6045:

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

Yeah, like many other have already said you couldn’t be more wrong about this jjaja. The forums are not crying for buffs, all people are asking for is a little bit of attention from the devs to fix the numerous bugs and blatant fails of minions and life siphon. Having two trait trees that are almost completely useless is mind boggling. Even more so since it’s been this way since release.

Every patch there’s a post with a huge following saying how disappointed they are with the notes. People want every trait line to work and be viable. That will never happen; no game has ever achieved anything like that. Bug fixes and a few tweaks are in order but nothing more.

Jjaja.7218:

Khalifahaze.6045:

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

Yeah, like many other have already said you couldn’t be more wrong about this jjaja. The forums are not crying for buffs, all people are asking for is a little bit of attention from the devs to fix the numerous bugs and blatant fails of minions and life siphon. Having two trait trees that are almost completely useless is mind boggling. Even more so since it’s been this way since release.

Every patch there’s a post with a huge following saying how disappointed they are with the notes. People want every trait line to work and be viable. That will never happen; no game has ever achieved anything like that. Bug fixes and a few tweaks are in order but nothing more.

How you can justify these trait lines never being viable makes no sense. It’s not like these fixes take a complete re-work of the necro class. All people want is minions to not kitten around afking instead of attacking, and life siphon to scale with healing power, 39 life per hit is laughable. While I agree with you that necro is more or less balanced in terms of damage output vs survivability, the fact that you see necro as fine when all you can run is LOL condi turret and power daggers I cannot understand.

HappinessFactory.4910:

Khalifahaze.6045:

Yeah, like many other have already said you couldn’t be more wrong about this jjaja. The forums are not crying for buffs, all people are asking for is a little bit of attention from the devs to fix the numerous bugs and blatant fails of minions and life siphon. Having two trait trees that are almost completely useless is mind boggling. Even more so since it’s been this way since release.

But khalifa lots of classes have bugs and useless traits, i mean i play ranger and the only build i can convince myself to play is traps. And i agree that, there should be more than one way to play each class competitively but at the moment that isnt really possible.

And from a balance perspective these useless traits and bugs dont have a large impact on balance because they’re not seen. Unless something is blatantly overpowered it wont receive a lot of attention and be fixed ASAP. It will take time to bring things up to viability.

The jobs of these developers is to take a step back when they are releasing a patch and see what is working and what is not working. If all they are looking at is what is overpowered every time they need to stop calling these “big balance patches”. They should rename them to overpowered hot fixes. Balancing requires looking at what people are not using and why. If something is clearly broken it needs to be addressed.

I was VERY happy with the engineer back before they nerfed smoke bomb and grenades into the ground. I had 22 QPs before they changed the formula for how it works.

All in all I’d say it’s probably the hardest class in the game to play right. It’s too damn punishing. If you whiff ONE shrapnel grenade you’re probably gonna lose a fight. The lack of reliable targeted damage at a range kills it in foefire GY fights where people have insane room to kite.

It can work and I’m sure it can STILL work, it’s just an absurdly hard class to just pick up and play with how kits work and all.

We need more nerfs IMO.

Ostricheggs.3742:

I was VERY happy with the engineer back before they nerfed smoke bomb and grenades into the ground. I had 22 QPs before they changed the formula for how it works.

All in all I’d say it’s probably the hardest class in the game to play right. It’s too damn punishing. If you whiff ONE shrapnel grenade you’re probably gonna lose a fight. The lack of reliable targeted damage at a range kills it in foefire GY fights where people have insane room to kite.

It can work and I’m sure it can STILL work, it’s just an absurdly hard class to just pick up and play with how kits work and all.

We need more nerfs IMO.

Grenade Engis are dead right now. Yeah they have huge “potential” damage with some RNG luck and hitting multiple people with 3 grenades each but the damage is largely back loaded and can be negated with condi removal.

I’ve been using http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqelsp6Zn1ShF1LJxoCdGki8qXRKeMl/ogtyF;ToAAzCoogxUkoIrPOYk+MqYuA
its similar to Teldo’s build but has condi removal with 3s bleeds on #1 pistol and 3second procs of burning.

Jjaja.7218:

Khalifahaze.6045:

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

Yeah, like many other have already said you couldn’t be more wrong about this jjaja. The forums are not crying for buffs, all people are asking for is a little bit of attention from the devs to fix the numerous bugs and blatant fails of minions and life siphon. Having two trait trees that are almost completely useless is mind boggling. Even more so since it’s been this way since release.

Every patch there’s a post with a huge following saying how disappointed they are with the notes. People want every trait line to work and be viable. That will never happen; no game has ever achieved anything like that. Bug fixes and a few tweaks are in order but nothing more.

people whining because minion ai is still broken and siphoning traits are worthless. 2 things people have been complaining bout since beta 1. how uncalled for of the community to be dissapointed that two of the biggest/most unique traits of a necro have been worthless/broken for 9 months.

We aren’t talking about some bugs and trait issues like every other class. It’s like mesmers complaining when phantasams were borked. And look Anet fixed it in one patch cycle. Rangers got pet AI fix. Necro minions, nothing.

Bunker/Support engineer used to be one of the strongest specs in the game. That is, until they started nerfing it every patch. We lost condition output after beta, smoke bomb (previously one of the strongest skills in game) has been considerably toned down, elixir r is half as effective as it used to be but I’d still say it is one of the more competitive builds though: when played right. We’re all those nerfs warranted? It’s hard to say.

To be honest, I think they went a little too far. At this point it takes two moderately good glass cannons, a pair conatining a condition/trap ranger, or a single very good mesmer to kill me. Previously I would have said engis were the best bunkers in the game. Can’t claim that any more. Most would disagree that they ever were but... well, there’s not much I can do to convince you now.

HappinessFactory.4910:

But khalifa lots of classes have bugs and useless traits, i mean i play ranger and the only build i can convince myself to play is traps.

traps is meh and brings no utility for your team. 0/0/30/10/30 condi regen vigor bunker is ridiculous good and imo every team should have one. can be played as roamer, or bunker. does some serious damage and cant die in 1v1.

Coming from someone that has mostly played Mesmer since the beta. To say Mesmer right now is “balanced” is probably the most lawls worthy thing I have ever read on these forums. They are way too strong and even bad ones can easily do way too much.

The only viable spec is shatter and has been for a while(the fact that they buffed it shows Anet have no clue what is going on). It has the best elites in the game. Most of the utilities are strong or worthless there is no middle ground.

Swilo.6475:

Coming from someone that has mostly played Mesmer since the beta. To say Mesmer right now is “balanced” is probably the most lawls worthy thing I have ever read on these forums. They are way too strong and even bad ones can easily do way too much.

The only viable spec is shatter and has been for a while(the fact that they buffed it shows Anet have no clue what is going on). It has the best elites in the game. Most of the utilities are strong or worthless there is no middle ground.

Why do people equate balance with “every trait, spell, and weapon set is perfect”? It simply means your damage and survivability are in proportion relative to the other classes. Just because you have one specialization doesn’t mean you’re unbalanced.

The learning curve for a profession is irrelevant regarding balance. I have yet to see a Mesmer in over 1,500 tPvP games that made me think “Wow. That profession needs a swift nerf”.

I have no team so I don’t run paid, but it’s nice to see someone near the top with an opinion that things aren’t completely out of whack.

I think once we see teams that aren’t made up of the standard requirement: 1guard, 1mesmer, or whatever, then we can say the game is balanced. I think the main problem is that for most of the classes, people have decided on what is a must-have due to its strength (mesmer portal for example), whereas tons of skills/traits are never touched. This results in a single dominant build for that class, and everyone talks about that specific one because they encounter it most.

If we can one day see a five ranger team with different builds and actually being useful, that would be something.

Swilo.6475:

Coming from someone that has mostly played Mesmer since the beta. To say Mesmer right now is “balanced” is probably the most lawls worthy thing I have ever read on these forums. They are way too strong and even bad ones can easily do way too much.

The only viable spec is shatter and has been for a while(the fact that they buffed it shows Anet have no clue what is going on). It has the best elites in the game. Most of the utilities are strong or worthless there is no middle ground.

Thank you
well said
good game

Right now Mesmer is the most blatently overpowered thing in the game right now. Swilo hit it spot on.

Rez signets need to be nerfed super hard as well and/or reworked.

Time Warp is ridiculously overpowered and needs duration nerf at the least.

Hybrid necro is too strong compared to the other aoe dps.

Warriors dont have enough mobility in team fights, I would suggest an elite that makes them immune to conditions, or some more of that somewhere. Also a way to not make shield so mandatory. Warriors are amazing duelists however but that can’t be their only role.

Engineer bunkers like nerva mentioned are strong and we are thinking about running one ourselves potentially once people catch on how to counter us. Right now because they dont have stronger damage than necros or rangers and being that they are basically a melee class when in bomb kit, makes them an inferior choice. Also with portal in the game it just makes it more difficult and pointless to leave something back point that isnt just a portal.

Rangers are strong now but only in 1v1 and 2v2 scenarios. They are sub-par in big team fights. Trap ranger is probably their strongest spec, tanky signet power builds however are good and can counter this trap spec.

Ele is the versatility class, while lacking things in the dps sphere they make up in utility (cc, innate defenses) Make for great bunkers, awesome treb control, but much like rangers are very bad in big team fights. D/D is the best shutdown in the game, unless you are trying to shut down a warrior because that won’t happen

Guardian has probably the most viable specs in the game. The class is just ridiculously strong across the board for obvious reasons.

I’m gunna reserve my opinion on thieves for now, but I know that they are very strong and their stealth up-time is probably too strong.

Immediate needed changes imo:

-Revert mesmer trait “shattered strength”
-Nerf time warp to 6 second duration
-Nerf signet of undeath and illusion of life cooldowns to 4 minutes and cast time to 3.5-4 seconds.
-Make rez utilities only rez one player in spvp/tpvp OR make all rez utilities vengeance based.
-either bring corpse hp back up to previous state or nerf poison on corpses
-take toughness out of the game. from what i hear gw1 didnt have it and there were no bunker problems
-deathmatch and moba game modes
-rankings
-money and resources thrown into pvp

Good day!
#ivewaitedmyentirelifeformmoeportsnowimoldwtfstillhasnthappened

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

Honestly mate, I dont care if you`re a “pro” or whatever you think you are, but saying that the necro forums are a cryfest for buffs goes to show just how clueless you are.
Have you actually read the forums?
Did you see what people are asking for ? You know, things like maybe less kitten minions, or fixing some bugs that completly screw up some of our builds.
Maybe try going back and reading through some of those posts, maybe then you`ll get a clue on what the class you`re playing was supposed to be, and how Anets vision of “build diversity” works for some classes.

Kaleygh.1524:

Jjaja.7218:

Arheundel.6451:

Jjaja.7218:

Hello! I’m Jjaja, I play Necromancer for a top five North American team (Jesus Beat Us Once; JBUO) and at the time of this posting I have around 376 qualifying points. Hopefully, these “credentials” lend some credibility to what I’m about to say. This is all strictly from my experience in tPvP.

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

Profession Representation: (There isn’t a profession we never see)
Guardian: Very High
Elementalist: Very High
Mesmer: High
Thief: Medium High
Necromancer: Medium High
Ranger: Medium
Warrior: Medium
Engineer: Medium Low

Weapon Swap Change:
Really hurts classes with no built in swiftness on their weapon sets. Otherwise, this is a good change. Why? It evens the playing field for professions who don’t have multiple viable weapon sets. It should be kept until all (or the majority) of the weapon sets are viable amongst all professions.

Paid Ticket Entry:
Needs to be lowered. It seriously reduces the competitive capacity of paids if some teams or players have to do four hours of frees just to do one paid. I suggest lowering the requirement from 5 to 3.

I’ve stopped reading……

The Necromancer forums are a non-stop cryfest for buffs. I don’t believe we need any buffs. I’ve asked quite a few other top players for their opinion on this list and they seem to agree.

Honestly mate, I dont care if you`re a “pro” or whatever you think you are, but saying that the necro forums are a cryfest for buffs goes to show just how clueless you are.
Have you actually read the forums?
Did you see what people are asking for ? You know, things like maybe less kitten minions, or fixing some bugs that completly screw up some of our builds.
Maybe try going back and reading through some of those posts, maybe then you`ll get a clue on what the class you`re playing was supposed to be, and how Anets vision of “build diversity” works for some classes.

Yes, I read the forums. Do you read the forums after every patch day? Nothing but tears. I made the build every Necromancer worth his weight uses today in tournaments; I think I have a good grasp of this professions viability. And for the hundredth time, diversity does not equal balance.

So what you are saying is that it is totally ok to have only 1 viable build for pvp.
You`re also saying that you came up with that build. Thanks a lot man, we`d be lost without you.
All jokes aside, I agree with you that diversity does not equal balance, but a game with no diversity becomes a dead game rather fast.

Kinda confused with the direction they wanted to go with some of the balance changes this patch (mesmer changes lolwut??? etc).

The balance alone doesn’t make me want to not play however, its simply not even worth it. The “competitive” pvp scene is completely dead (for na at least), and that coupled with questionable balance makes for a frustrating game for me to personally play.

I understand that this game is a work in progress pvp wise, but I think alot of people expected a really solid pvp scene within the first 1-2 months. I know people like to mention how league of legends was a really bad game for the first bit of its release, but the difference is that people went into gw2 expecting esports/competitive rdy pvp pretty much right away. With league noone expected anything and thus they weren’t disappointed when it didn’t happen for awhile.

People are just going to have to accept that gw2 pvp is not going to be even close to where it needs to be for awhile.

Bloodbath.7084:

Jjaja.7218:

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

You can’t base your perception of balance on your experience as a necro only. It is irrelevant how many QP you got, if you only play 1-2 professions you can’t possibly understand what’s balanced or not. I regularly play 5 profs (keep one slot for tryouts) and still i feel there’s more i needed to learn from prof X or Y. The classes i play most are Ranger, Mesmer and Elementalist (kinda been slacking on my guardian and thief lately). I must say, i strongly disagree with your acessment. This is my opinion:

Mesmer: VERY strong.

Yes, i used caps there on purpose. Anyone that does not see this as the very best prof needs to properly play one. In the hands of a good PvPer – and i think of myself as one, with over 17 years of PvP on all genres on my belt – it’s a mean killing machine. And support machine. And escape artist. So powerful it hurts.

Guardian: Very Strong

Not a mesmer, but still a very powerful profession with a wide range of viable specs.

Thief: Very Strong

Properly played thieves are not only very dangerous finishers with huge burst but also amazing at evading/harassing and closing distances aswell as very good stompers and rezzers. Anyone that thinks they’re not top notch needs some serious lessons on combat dynamics.

Elementalist: Strong

While the Ele bunker specs (and downed state) are a bit too strong at the moment they do tend to be dead rather quickly when specced otherwise. Can be deadly vs some combos but facing a player that knows the class they can be easy prey as DPS. Hybrid specs can be a real menace in the right hands though.

Necromancer: Balanced

Necros still have some issues that need to be addressed but overall it’s a class that’s very close to being balanced.

Ranger: Balanced

Before the latest patch i’d disagree but from my experience since the 14th the Ranger has indeed been buffed to a point that i’d say it’s close to being balanced. A lot of issues still with pet pathing, bugged abilities and perhaps the class that needs the more focus to play and be successful with as pure DPS.

Warrior: Wouldn’t call it weak, but a bit limited at the moment. Their ability to quickly shift the weight of battles can be decisive when played properly but i’ll admit, could do with a bit more variety.

Engineer: Since the latest patch i’ve faced some really dangerous Engis and since i don’t play the class, i’ll leave it to whoever does to judge.

Considering last patch was mostly major nerfs for engi, I doubt that.

Ahlen.7591:

Bloodbath.7084:

Jjaja.7218:

Profession Balance: (Obviously every profession could use bug fixes and tweaks)
Guardian: Very Strong
Elementalist: Strong
Thief: Slightly Strong
Mesmer: Balanced
Necromancer: Balanced
Ranger: Balanced
Warrior: Slightly Weak
Engineer: Weak

You can’t base your perception of balance on your experience as a necro only. It is irrelevant how many QP you got, if you only play 1-2 professions you can’t possibly understand what’s balanced or not. I regularly play 5 profs (keep one slot for tryouts) and still i feel there’s more i needed to learn from prof X or Y. The classes i play most are Ranger, Mesmer and Elementalist (kinda been slacking on my guardian and thief lately). I must say, i strongly disagree with your acessment. This is my opinion:

Mesmer: VERY strong.

Yes, i used caps there on purpose. Anyone that does not see this as the very best prof needs to properly play one. In the hands of a good PvPer – and i think of myself as one, with over 17 years of PvP on all genres on my belt – it’s a mean killing machine. And support machine. And escape artist. So powerful it hurts.

Guardian: Very Strong

Not a mesmer, but still a very powerful profession with a wide range of viable specs.

Thief: Very Strong

Properly played thieves are not only very dangerous finishers with huge burst but also amazing at evading/harassing and closing distances aswell as very good stompers and rezzers. Anyone that thinks they’re not top notch needs some serious lessons on combat dynamics.

Elementalist: Strong

While the Ele bunker specs (and downed state) are a bit too strong at the moment they do tend to be dead rather quickly when specced otherwise. Can be deadly vs some combos but facing a player that knows the class they can be easy prey as DPS. Hybrid specs can be a real menace in the right hands though.

Necromancer: Balanced

Necros still have some issues that need to be addressed but overall it’s a class that’s very close to being balanced.

Ranger: Balanced

Before the latest patch i’d disagree but from my experience since the 14th the Ranger has indeed been buffed to a point that i’d say it’s close to being balanced. A lot of issues still with pet pathing, bugged abilities and perhaps the class that needs the more focus to play and be successful with as pure DPS.

Warrior: Wouldn’t call it weak, but a bit limited at the moment. Their ability to quickly shift the weight of battles can be decisive when played properly but i’ll admit, could do with a bit more variety.

Engineer: Since the latest patch i’ve faced some really dangerous Engis and since i don’t play the class, i’ll leave it to whoever does to judge.

Considering last patch was mostly major nerfs for engi, I doubt that.

The nerfs moreso affected PvE, PvP Engies mostly received buffs.

hey jjaja just going to throw in that i definitely agree with your lists and the paid tourney ticket change especially. for most teams the 5 is too big of an investment which restricts free teams from really getting better. i know just with the lack of paids tourneys that actually pops hinders our teams improvement because when we get killed in the first fight we really don’t know what to do. you probably noticed this facing us. the first fights would be close and then we get overwhelmed and then we don’t know where to go, what to hit and how to pull a counter offensive. which this all leads to not as many teams giving the top teams real competition. which means viewers have to wait for a jesus beat us once to go up against katy perry fan club or pz to see a good game.

Hey thanks for talking to the community about current balance/class representation in current meta. I think more discussion prompted by you guys would help out this community greatly.

Too much of this forum discussion is dominated by people who have no idea what they’re talking about. I had certain beliefs about the meta-game, and then I started watching streams and I saw a very different picture.

I know that is predictable of official forums, but its hard to see what is going on in meta unless you hunt for streams.