Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I’m pretty new to the game and have been trying to find the class i want to make my main. The reason i focused on these 3 was because i like light armoured, tricky, elusive, stealthy type classes in these kind of games. High risk/reward is my kind of thing and high skill-cap is a must for me, also a good dueling class is a must.

I also want a class that is good in group PvE, so end game content PvE is of interest to me. Mainly though i’ll be WvW and sPvP. Roaming style in WvW is of most interest to me. I’ve leveled the 3 of them to around 40 ish so far and experimented a bit in sPvP. I don’t want a class who people don’t want in end game dungeons or kick them simply because they are that particular class.

Mesmer seemed a bit clunky to me. I was leveling as GS and S/S as power. Does it improve as you level? Seems very slow currently.

Thief is much faster for killing but seem a bit one-dimensional. Not sure if they get boring fast? I’m D/D currently but have tried P/D also.

Ranger i liked as i’m into bow and arrow classes in general. I know they’ve gotten some buff last patch but i was playing as Longbow/GS before this. I’d stick with ranger immediately if it wasn’t for the pet, i hate depending on AI for some of your dps. I can live with this if it isn’t much of a dependancy.

Anyway guys i’d really like your feedback as i don’t have enough playing time to be able to level all, i can only do one class and don’t want to waste time on something i won’t like. So i thought it better to ask people who have been there; done that.

Thanks in advance

Tl;DR:
I think Thief fits you the best due to a high skillcap, desirability in PvE and PvP and their elusive, stealthy, high mobility playstyle. I don’t think Ranger fits your needs mainly due to not enjoying the class-mechanic of pets, which are an essential part of your damage and CC and I’ve experienced it as a low skillcap class and have had people share that opinion. Mesmer is a tricky one, definitely fits the elusive, stealthy feel, but for me this class has simply always been straight forward and easy to play. For me to enjoy Mesmer, I need a team that makes full use of a Mesmer potential. If you strip it of it’s unique utility it just feels simple. I absolutely love playing it in organized groups since it greatly helps our survivability and efficiency, but in PuGs I generally have a horrible time, so I wouldn’t want it as a single main, but you’ll have to judge for yourself.

Ranger
PvE: Good DPS, offensive support (spotter/frost spirit) definitely worth having one in your team. Downside: Used to be in a very bad position, so it might take a while for the community to catch on, considering they’ve been endlessly stacking Warrior for months now even though more than one Warrior is a dps-loss, now more than ever.
WvW: Can roam, but so can any class aslong as you know how to solo with it. Difficult to escape from with decent escape-ability themselves. Offer nothing substantial to a zerg, but you expressed no interest in that playstyle anyway.
sPvP: Currently very hated to be against, the recent personal damage buff has made them pack quite a better punch whilst already being decent. Good position with Spiritbuilds (teamfighter) and Power or even Condition Builds. Power LB + GS likely fits you well.

Mesmer
PvE: Good due to their unique defensive support, ranging from Condition Cleanse, mini-stability, Boon Removal, Reflects, Party-wide Quickness and Portals, the latter is usually only used well in organized groups. This means, assuming you swap your utilities depending on the situation, you can help a team out incredibly well. Their personal DPS isn’t great if there’s nothing to Reflect. You’ve likely already noticed that whilst leveling. (Small tip, level in PvP-specs, the Shatterburst playstyle fits solo content a lot better.)
WvW: Offer unique utility to Zergs, so always welcome. For roaming they’re a variation of builds that work well and are quite annoying to play against. Their access to stealth and blink makes for great escapability, compensating for their not so wonderful mobility.
sPvP: Sadly in arena’s your stuck with 3 utilities, a shame with everything that the Mesmer has to offer. It used to be a bit buggy (the 9/9/14 patch should have fixed most of it) but I find them very fun to play. Most of the challenge will come from being predictable and thus making it challenging to land your shatters vs a good player, but that only makes it more fun! Downside, almost all builds are Shatterbuilds in one way or another with very similar weapon-choices.

Thief
PvE: Invaluable in any Fractal group and can usually be very helpful in Dungeon groups aswell. They offers smokefields to easy give a group stealth (either by popping Black Powder, Pistol #5 and your team blasts it, or you pop Smokescreen and blast it with Clusterbombs, SB #2 and use Shadow Refuge, slower, but ye, you can’t control PuGs. Pack some of the highest DPS and aren’t completely shabby on defensive support through Smokescreen (anti-projectile and blinds) and Black Powder (blinds for trash) alongside with Sword #1 inflicting weakness. For bosses you’ll want D/D however for the highest single-target DPS.
WvW: Don’t Zerg with them, too squishy, but amazing Roamers. Stealth and mobility usually allows you to get the first strike, you can kill quick and efficient and if the fight doesn’t go your way, stealth and be miles away to re-engage when you’re ready.
sPvP: You’ll mainly be roaming, you have the advantage of being able to pick all your fights, so make sure you become an efficient 1 v 1’er. Quickly cap and move on to your next victem. In teamfights you usually can’t do much more than spike down an essential/squishy enemy and run before the enemies do the same. You don’t offer too much support in teamfights anyway, so job done, back to capping sides. The skillcap is quite decent aswell, it’s not too horrible you can’t do anything at first, but you’re not done learning until you can win every 1 v 1 and do it quick and efficient.

Mesmers has a completely different play style as a normal class, you need to implement you Shatter skills (f1 f2 f3 f4) into your rotation for damage spikes. Eg. Great sword 2, wait for clone to spawn, then f1 Does a good amount of damage, especially in WvW/Spvp It’ll usually force squishy targets to use Cooldowns/Heal or even panic and blow everything if you get a nice crit+weapons Procs. PvE Wise people would prefer a Mesmer in a group than a Thief/Ranger in my opinion.

Thief probably the better/Fun Roamer

Ranger will get out classed by these both

Ah ok. So it seems i’d get more mileage out of a Mesmer. Are the Thief and Ranger much easier to master then?

Does a Ranger have anything going for it at all?

Mesmer/Thief have similar difficulty levels, anyone can play them but being good at them is hard, Learning how to kite people, learn Blink/Phase retreat/Shadow step spots.
and most of all learn how to avoid damage and when to engage/Disengage.

Ranger seems to be the runt of the litter, a Skill mesmer/thief will go vs a skilled ranger and win vs the ranger. Unless the ranger Builds complete Tank/Condi where a mesmer/thief would just walk away form the fight as it’d be boring.

All I can say is: Mesmer.

Great answer Esmee. I think i’ll go with Thief then based on your reply

Another few questions regarding Thief if that’s cool:

1) In theory if Both players have equal skill level can a Thief 1v1 any class or do they have a particular weakness? In my experience in sPvP with them i had a lot of difficulty with engineers which made me switch to P/D for the range benefits. As D/D they absolutely destroyed me in general and there’s always so many Engineers in sPvP.

2) Speak of sPvP is P/D viable at all? I like the kiting style gameplay it offers and it seems to do well against Engineers and warriors ( who i absolutely despise ).

3) Since the last patch i’ve been reading a lot of threads on the Thief forum and everyone is saying Thief is the worst PvP class now since all the nerfs, which kind of puts me off a little. Is this just over-reaction or should i pay some heed to this?

1) no. there are classes (builds) that will do better against others. that’s where the word “rotations” comes from. if you have a gun, go to fight the guy with the knife.
like turret engineer > thief (assuming beginner level)
2) no. depends, you’ll find out that s/d, d/p or s/p are more fun. much higher skill.
3)the worst thing is not the nerf , it’s the bugs (changes) on steal (F1) and other very important class mechanics thiefs used and burnt in there muscle memory.

still thief is a lot of fun in spvp, fastest roamer, kills fast, dies fast

i put an eye on mesmer, too. waiting for anet to fix steal soon

TL;DR – I found Thief to be the hardest to pick up and go, where as Ranger was the easiest. My mesmer is a portal mesmer due to me not using her anymore. You’ll need to test and tweak each of your builds to your licking as well.

I only have experience with some of the builds, or seen some of the builds in action. I don’t like playing a tanking build, and I don’t have any useful advice relating to tanking builds.

Mesmer – High Burst / Condi potential but low Sustained damage. You sometimes take a Mesmer into fractals or dungeons to take advantage of their utilities, but they currently have some of the lowest sustained DPS. That said, if you are going to only do sPvP Mesmer is a nice class to play, but be careful if you are going the burst route as you will be glassy. If possible run PU on a condi tanker set instead of burst, then gradually shift to burst when you are ready.

Ranger – Low Burst / Good Condi / Good Sustained Damage. One of the better classes to play for sheer damage using the three above damage methods. You have a health pool which isn’t too bad – and your pet utilities can make a huge difference. That said, rangers fit into a few fractal or dungeon parties due to spotter and frost spirit, and I wouldn’t mind a ranger coming on any run so long as they don’t PB shot mobs at the wrong time. Playing a Ranger in sPvP isn’t hard at all, but I feel their burst (discounting 15-20k AoOs) is lacking, playing a straight up LB sustain build isn’t bad, and neither is SB condi tanker. People will say the LB changes made it more burst, but id argue it made rapid shot avoidable with one dodge, thus the damage is almost completely avoidable (or at least 80% of it). I haven’t played condi ranger yet as I really liked my sustain build.

Thief – Medium Burst / Medium Condi / Medium Sustain Damage. A great class for damage and mechanics / utilities. Your health pool is pretty much non-existent. Thiefs in fractals or dungeon groups are very welcome as they have some of the highest situational sustain damage in the game and have plenty of utility. Playing a thief in sPvP is hit or miss – you need to use blind, evades, stealth, or teleports for survivability or you may end up having a really bad time. I also found pacing on theifs are erratic based on thier weapon sets. You’ll want to test different weapon sets out for what you feel comfortable. You’ll also want to learn do to all the 4 above things in order to survive.

You really shouldn’t be 1v1’ing with a thief until you become incredibly good at knowing what to expect from other players. If you develop your ability to read the other player really well, then you can 1v1 – notice I said other player and not class. The thief requires a high skillcap to straight up 1v1 people with ease in spvp. Are there matchups that are generally in your favor? Yes, but you shouldn’t be constantly running to far node trying to 1v1 their back point defender all game.

Engineer is probably your worst matchup as a thief. Necro can be very difficult as well, but necromancers are like 1v1 kings at the moment. DPS guard is also a really tough matchup for a thief.

So if you can’t 1v1 or have trouble with it (i.e. take too much time), you should focus on +1’ing fights. Showing up to a point and spike someone down who is the closest to 50% health. If a person has 50% health and has burned his cooldowns, and you don’t screw up, they will die if you spike them – no matter what the class. So just remember that, if you choose to play thief, they work best when nobody is paying attention to what you are doing.

Also don’t turn to condi P/D. That is a crutch and a bad one. It is the equivalent of an engie deciding to play turret spec. Or a Mesmer deciding to play PU.

Thief DPS/Stealth
Dual pistols/daggers
4/4/6/0/0
III-X/V-IX/I-VIII-XI
Sigil of Acc/Force
Rune of Eagle
Amulet of assassin
Hide in shadow/blinding powder/signet of agility/shadow refugee/basilisk venom

This is a sPvP build but you can sync it with PvE or WvW. Feel free to tweak it to fit your playing style GLHF!

P.S When using this build id recommend you use dual pistol skill [Unload] once enemy hp is below 50% go in with daggers and [Heartseeker] FTW! Also note when your in stealth your weapon skill 1 with dual pistols shots out a burst so id recommend for example, Stealth then use [Vital Shot] (skill 1 in dual weapons) which will do a burst since your in stealth then [Unload] so you get good DPS while saving initiative.