Guild Wars 2

I’m in the process of making a new character and this input would be helpful.

no such thing as a best profession in spvp it’s all about how you play everything can counter anything else so just pick what feels most natural to you.

waiting for the mesmer, Thief and Guardian to be mentioned

I personally think its more down to play style and people just complaining coz they expect to beat everyone and when they lose they scream OP

Well, right now our only real “meta” to speak of is “have a Guardian”. Mesmers and Theives pubstomp, as 1v1 classes are wont to do.

People that have played multiple MMOs and any MOBA at all realize this right? The classes that do best 1v1 tend to receive the most OP complaints.

Ele, Engi and Necro.

Thief, Mesmer, Guardian.

Duh.

Right at this moment? Mesmer, Guardian, Thief in that order. Expect them to get toned down a bit in the next few weeks though.

Rather than rolling the strongest class, you really ought to try all of them for a few hours in sPvP and see which ones you enjoy the most. That’s what I did, and I chose to main Ranger despite the fact that it’s objectively weaker than some of the other classes.

While some of the classes are a bit stronger than others, you can do well with any one of them if you’re a good player and take the time to learn how to spec and play it.

Don’t listen to what they say. The metagame is revolving around who has a better and/or more Guardians on their team. When you have to call for help to focus down a bunker Guardian, it cripples your team and puts you at a huge disadvantage.

Me and my teams have lost numerous tPvP matches by less than 30 points only because it took forever to get the Guardian off of the point.

imo you should play like 20-40 games with each class and try different specs. I did that and found my love <3

Like I said before don’t listen to people about bunker gaurdians because there’s 101 counters to them no class is better than another. Alot of hard classes have boon strips which all gaurdians rely on, as well as stuns and interupts to prevent their healing and protection. + gaurdians may be tanking but sorry friend conditions hurt just as much regardless of your armor if your looking for the most viable class in the game it is the ranger( viable doesn’t mean op just has more options). Not the Greatsword rangers because if your going into battle with a melee weapon with squishy armor your crazy but shortbow/axe-torch works best. I’ve notice in everything I’ve played it’s best to stay away from the crit junky builds because even though you may be able to spike a kill in seconds all it takes is a simple dodge and your owned so run a basic build where your skills focus a little more into 1-2 things than the others. I run conditions and toughness then even out the other stats at 50% crit and a little bit of power and you’ll do fine the rest comes from experience and premeditation.

Did i mention I almost never lose a fight 1v1 as ranger? but people never say they are op is probably because all of them wields them d@*$ greatswords -.- lol

Mesmers, Guardians, and Necromancers.

The 3 most notorious builds are Thief, Mesmer, and Guardian.

(I got a feeling this is why this thread was made XD)

But like most others have said it depends on why your play style is like.

I for one Main Necro, I’m pretty good at it too, but if you look on forum they don’t have the best reputation XD. So Play what you wanna play or what you feel more comfortable playing as.

Mesmers , because its the only class i cant kill with my sucky skills :P

Mesmer, Guardian, Thief, no particular order.

Would you people who keep saying that every class can counter every class just go away?

There as never been a balanced game in the history of games.

GW2 is no exception.

We’re not saying it’s balanced, But if you have killed at least 1 of each profession, then you can technically counter a class.

I’ve 1V1’d all other classes and my own class in PVP and won, It doesn’t mean I can counter them all, It means I can counter some or most Builds.

Dude that’s not true at all. Some people are just bad at the game. If I’m a Necro and I kill a bad Mesmer, does that mean that Necro is on par with Mesmer? No it just means that player was bad. It doesn’t mean my class can counter their class.

But what I’m saying is that, nobody said it was balanced at all yes some professions are Clearly stronger than others, some profession (I mean I’m a Necro so I know about this) have major bugs or problems.

But I’ve taken down good players who play as the “OP” Classes 1V1 I’m not saying I’m an excellent player, far from it TBH, But I do think people do have an Equal chance of killing all other classes if they can play well, just not all other builds.

XD

I don’t know why you’re saying nobody said it was balanced when the second post in the thread is:

“no such thing as a best profession in spvp it’s all about how you play everything can counter anything else so just pick what feels most natural to you.”

That’s the attitude I was referring to with my post. Sorry, I should’ve quoted it to be more clear. But yeah I’ve beat every class 1v1 too. Doesn’t mean I should’ve

OK I see your point there, That is a stupid comment, I mean it more like Classes can kill Classes (Still sounds weird but in my head it makes sense XD), But not all Builds can beat other Builds (trait and spec wise) if that’s any clearer if not then I can’t really enplane it any more than that.

I must have missed that comment but yeah this game isn’t Balanced yet, no game is ever perfectly balanced, no such thing as a perfect thing XD

you both misread my statement i said no class is better than another because they all have specific counters and have their own importance of a role to play. The only people who call a class op is because they obviously hit this margin and can’t kill it period usually these people complaining are the crit junkies who get steamed rolled via skill/strategy because their quick cap hits don’t work anymore. Or new people un intelligable of other classes and their capabilities.

The single best profession in the current meta is the Mesmer. High damage, easy escapes, amazing elites, good downed state, and don’t forget ridiculous team utility.

As for the other “best” professions, it really depends on what kind of role you’re performing.

Thief, Mesmer, Guardian

Its not that those are super OP or anything, they just serve their roles better than the rest.

Halseybr.9403:

just pick what feels most natural to you.

^This. I wouldn’t trade my dual pistols Engi for ANYTHING &, believe it or not, I do very well with it for a non-FotM build/class. Pick what suits YOUR strengths & playstyle. This week’s OP class/cookie cutter build may not be fun/suit you. Experiment & have fun.

Thief, mesmer and warrior

Guardian instead of warrior in 5v5.

Thief and mes are just light years ahead of everyone else.

Halseybr.9403:

you both misread my statement i said no class is better than another because they all have specific counters and have their own importance of a role to play. The only people who call a class op is because they obviously hit this margin and can’t kill it period usually these people complaining are the crit junkies who get steamed rolled via skill/strategy because their quick cap hits don’t work anymore. Or new people un intelligable of other classes and their capabilities.

They didn’t misread your statement, you’re just wrong and they disagree with you because of that. Some classes are currently objectively better than other classes.

Every class has a role to play, but some classes simply play those roles better than others. Bomb Engineers can play a bunker point defense role, but that doesn’t matter because Guardians do the job strictly better. Rangers can play the roamer role, but Thieves fill the same role better. A Necro can use and guard the treb on Kyhlo, but a Mesmer will always do that job better.

Some classes are currently better than others. That doesn’t mean that certain classes are unplayable — they’re not. But they’re not as good as certain other classes. A good player can do well with any class, but that same player is going to do the best with a Mesmer, Guardian, or Thief.

There’s a reason that these three classes comprise the majority of highly competitive tPvP teams like Team Legacy, Super Squad, and Team Paradigm. It’s because competitive players will always take any advantage they can get, and these classes give them an advantage.

It’s not a huge deal. ANet is far more aware of class imbalances than most people give them credit for. Appropriate action will be taken, those classes will be brought into line, and everyone will be kittening about some other class next month instead.

Top 3 in order:

Guardian, Mesmer, Thief.

one time i saw a serious premade without a guardian, lol jk

mesmers guardians and engineers

honorable mention to thieves

In order for tPvP: Mesmer -> Guardian -> Thief
In actual 1v1s: Thief -> Mesmer -> Ranger -> Engineer

Necros, Eles, Warriors I really never have any issues with at all. I’ve seen some pretty fantastic bunker necros, though.

This is primarily from the perspective of my ranger, and I typically use some shortbow/condition variant or a greatsword power build.

1+1+1+1=3 btw.

Mesmer,Guardian and thief

The people who play the profession will defend it.

I play a thief,guardian and necro…..So yeah I wouldn’t waste my time with my necro is pvp atm.

Mesmer: Clones that confuse baddies.
Guardians: Tough for baddies to kill in their glass cannon specs.
Thieves: Blow up glass cannon baddies before they can react.

It should be no surprise why these classes are being picked. From the scope of 5v5 tPvP, only Guardian has an above-average influence on team success. Everything else is fairly well balanced.

You need to look no further than Guildcast for the proof. 7/8 classes represented and no double-class comps to be found.

Find a competitive 5v5 team that doesn’t run a Mesmer and I’ll give you a cookie.

mesmer, thief and guardian.

Also, thief and mesmer have OP downed states (you cant use stability/immunity to stomp them). They will always be ressed if they are in a good team.

1 most OP, Guardian. At bunkier build kitten everything and everyone- even mesmer.
2 Mesmer, pwn all in 1vs1, loose only for bunkier Guardian

3 Hard choice, I say Warrior/Thief. Warr got tones of DMG and imobilizes. Thief got dmg and mobility (and less hp that warr)

mouse.1689:

Right at this moment? Mesmer, Guardian, Thief in that order. Expect them to get toned down a bit in the next few weeks though.

Rather than rolling the strongest class, you really ought to try all of them for a few hours in sPvP and see which ones you enjoy the most. That’s what I did, and I chose to main Ranger despite the fact that it’s objectively weaker than some of the other classes.

While some of the classes are a bit stronger than others, you can do well with any one of them if you’re a good player and take the time to learn how to spec and play it.

Wow, almost exactly the same experience for me.

You also always see the really well played “lesser” classes blowing people away as well. That said, thief and mesmer in particular are really easy to play and if you get good at it you’ll be devistating. I think guardian is a little harder but as everyone says they are a powerhouse in the right hands.

Just want to elaborate on a major reason why thief and Mesmer are so good: you can run glass canon builds but still have great survivability. Rack up the easy kills without dying, feels so good!

I’ve seen personally ele, thief, guardian, mesmer, engineer played at equally high levels. Only once with an ele but he was amazing. Also Engineer isn’t weaker than any of the top classes its just harder.

The problem is with most people if the class is harder to play then another class it is considered weak…

Thieves can devastate guardians if they put the 60% boon removal on One of their weapons. Mes are tricky, but short bow will remove the fakes fast or if nothing else reveal which is the real mes. I have come across some hard to get down necros though.

They didn’t misread your statement, you’re just wrong and they disagree with you because of that. Some classes are currently objectively better than other classes.

…..

- No. You even contradict yourself. It’s not a huge deal, because anet even tell’s people to stop complaining and find counters they spent years making this game.
They didn’t just pull idea’s out of a hat and throw them together they sat down day and night with each class and each skill and thought of a balance for them all gave them classes roles and counters to those roles people are just lazy or can’t even think of counters because it’s just to “hard” for them so instead of balancing the game people will force them to dumb it down for you all I have never had a problem with any of these classes. Let me tell you what I do when fighting each of these classes so you get an idea.
( I play ranger)
Mesmers to start off.

When a mesmers approaches me or I approach it I lay my first line of conditions down.
shortbow poison, cripple, short bow AA bleed, then short bow daze to add pressure, I also crtl target because they will soon start laying mirriors. second the mirrors pop. I switch to Axe it hits many targets and kills the mirrors very very quickly. If I see chaos storm I move out of it. If Im confused I remove it or don’t attack I play conditions I don’t need to rely on my Auto Attack as a matter of fact my Auto attack is always turned off I just hit 1 when the mirrors are killed which is usually quickly I use my pet abilities and quickly apply my burst conditions via throw torch axe roots and pet, second if applied them I daze then pet stun meaning (switching back to shortbow) cripple and finish them off they are squishy only trouble is dealing with the mirrors which i take out every time in tpvp very quickly may get annoying when they stealth but I usually kite away lengthly till they come back and re approach.

Theifs

The best theives are those who go into condition and survivability over crit but just incase I run into any type of crit junky I have my traits set up and my utility that makes me invulnerable for 6 seconds. I just pop it when they burst and kill them if their burst doesn’t work. If you aren’t stupid then you should have no problem killing something with 14-16k health and 900 toughness .. no excuses. So lets describe this for when I’m attacking a skilled player. The thief would spec into bleeds they can apply 25 stacks of bleeds easy with just caltrops dodging and utility im pretty sure if the max wasnt 25 it would far surpass this. Then they would sustain those bleeds with support from deathblossom or pistols. You could have ur kite/HS theif, or my favorite DD always theif with the stealth utilities and just death blossom cloak and dagger back stab repeat till they are dead. counter for this is easy don’t stand in the caltrops when they stealth keep moving as for me I lay my traps turn around till I see my condition ticks ( you can see condition tics hitting people in stealth) Then start attacking again second they are unstealthed I stun re apply conditions then kite and move if they are pistols I use my traps, dodge when I hear rapid fire, shortbow daze to push their cloak
Then second they unpop out of stealth use my pet stun apply my burst conditons via axe roots and pet poison go back to shortbow and finish them off.

as for gaurdians I’ve already made a post at what I do to gaurdians in a thread already
( even necros as for how I react to people who can strip conditions or send them back to me) so read the post before you come back and reply with a blah blah they are still op because they are not unless I guess Rangers are now the new OP of the week.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Juking-dodging-and-other-Advanced-Gameplay-skills/first#post339787

here ^

But yea so back to what I was saying don’t complain that things are just to hard don’t expect to be able to just walk in and faceroll people the games still fairly new people are finding new tactics and strategies everyday still so figure them out and play the game.

Elementalists, Guardians, and Engineers. Thieves and Mesmers are highly overrated, and unbelievably easy to counter. Just like the old Warriors were overpowered bandwagon that was around before, they are rather easy to deal with.

In all seriousness?

Best → Worst in the Top 3
1) Engineers (by a LONG, LONG mile), 2)Guardians, 3) Mesmers.

I don’t want to start talking about OP classes cus it frustrates people.
I personally think 3 classes are overpowered in their own ways but I won’t mention them.

The thing that makes me sad is that for tournament games 2 classes are more or less required to do well in the Trebuchet map. The protective knockback Guardian to camp the Clocktower and the Portal Mesmer to control the Treb and quickly repair it.
It’s sad that a good tournament group basically always has both of these combined with some burst, roaming and maybe one more point holder.

Sephalo.5407:

I don’t want to start talking about OP classes cus it frustrates people.
I personally think 3 classes are overpowered in their own ways but I won’t mention them.

The thing that makes me sad is that for tournament games 2 classes are more or less required to do well in the Trebuchet map. The protective knockback Guardian to camp the Clocktower and the Portal Mesmer to control the Treb and quickly repair it.
It’s sad that a good tournament group basically always has both of these combined with some burst, roaming and maybe one more point holder.

Pretty much the reasons above are why I say Engy(point holder)/Guard(clock)/Mes.(Treb)

I think we need a tad more details in this thread. Like which class you’re playing, and in what scenario, when you name a specific class.

For example, someone earlier said #1 is “Engineer by a LONG, LONG mile”. Now, I play an Engineer as my secondary char, primary being Mesmer, and I cannot for the life of me fathom why.

I feel Engi is very flexible, yes. I feel it is highly mobile and very useful in WvW. But I really can’t remember playing any class (and I played them all at some point during the betas and/or since release) where I said to myself “Oh, crap! An Engineer!” and my pulse rate went up. Never happened.

On the other hand, when a Warrior jumps me and I didn’t see him, or a Thief starts unloading at me before the engine even renders him, that is a definite “Oh, crap!” moment where it’s do-or-die. With a warrior the reflex gut reaction is to roll away, but if you are CCd already, that half-second’s hesitation when the roll fails will see you killed.

Similarly, a lot of people say Mesmer. And I can’t for the life of me work out why. Certainly for a complete newbie that can’t tell a clone from the real thing, a Mesmer can be a daunting foe. But against someone who knows precisely what ability was just used, and what it did, and most often where the Mesmer is as a result of it, the class is very easy and predictable since abilities are so prescriptive.

Similarly, I find it strange when people make claims like for example Mesmer is impossible to stomp. OK, I’ll grant you that on occasion the downed ability teleport will put Mesmer through a wall or somewhere where he’s not immediately visible. But that wall teleportation is really just a bug, Staff #2 ability of the Mesmer class suffers from the same thing – you often end up inside walls, underground, etc., which gets you killed in PvE more often than not. And how can you confuse a downed clone without a big red arrow over its head with the real Mesmer with a big red arrow over his head?

Plus, lovely little Ctrl+T, which will put a red bull’s eye over the Mesmer takes all guesswork right out of it. The only way for him to ditch it is full-on invisibility, it won’t be fooled by clones. And how invisible can a Mesmer be? Well, there’s Prestige, Veil, Mass Invisibility and Decoy. Have I missed something? Prestige is Torch-offhand only, and rather weak. Veil and Mass Invisibility have very long cooldowns to be practical and short-ish durations (4-5 sec respectively). Mass Invis is an elite, and has a very long cast time, all too easy to stop. And even if you fall for it, it’s just 5 seconds, during which he can’t DPS you anyway, and both phantasms and clones die very easily.

I guess I just don’t see it.

For me personally, I would rate classes as Thief, Warrior, Ranger. Not because of their individual strength perhaps, but because the classes perform very well with an absolute minimum of effort. Not quite “Spam #1 and win”, but very, very close to it. It takes precious little skill to be highly effective with these classes. Just takes a bit of luck and positioning to totally wreck with them.

Mesmer, Guardian, Engineer.

Thief is over rated.

Necromancer and Warrior can use some improvement.

I’m going to answer each real question posed here.

Sabbathius.1465:

I think we need a tad more details in this thread. Like which class you’re playing, and in what scenario, when you name a specific class.

- I play a Warrior.

Sabbathius.1465:

For example, someone earlier said #1 is “Engineer by a LONG, LONG mile”.

I feel Engi is very flexible, yes. I feel it is highly mobile and very useful in WvW. But I really can’t remember playing any class (and I played them all at some point during the betas and/or since release) where I said to myself “Oh, crap! An Engineer!” and my pulse rate went up. Never happened.

-Some engineers right now, are almost impossible to kill unless you get a CC chain on them with a few teammates. Bunker engineers are simply AMAZING in tPvP. Consistent regen, speed, AoE’s and knockbacks make them an extremely difficult class to deal with.

Sabbathius.1465:

On the other hand, when a Warrior jumps me and I didn’t see him, or a Thief starts unloading at me before the engine even renders him, that is a definite “Oh, crap!” moment where it’s do-or-die. With a warrior the reflex gut reaction is to roll away, but if you are CCd already, that half-second’s hesitation when the roll fails will see you killed.

-This is (unfortunately and I mean no offense) a ‘Learn 2 Play’ issue. A simple stun break can mitigate Warrior and Thief burst and give you the upper hand if you retaliate with a stun or knockback. For this reason is why many people in this thread aren’t listing Warriors / Thiefs as on ‘top’.

Sabbathius.1465:

Similarly, a lot of people say Mesmer. And I can’t for the life of me work out why. Certainly for a complete newbie that can’t tell a clone from the real thing, a Mesmer can be a daunting foe. But against someone who knows precisely what ability was just used, and what it did, and most often where the Mesmer is as a result of it, the class is very easy and predictable since abilities are so prescriptive.

-My heart rate doesn’t go up against a Mesmer. But my annoyance does. Great mesmers use LoS and their ability to consistently spawn illusions to simply kite an enemy to death with Confusion and NPC damage. Couple together teleports, in some cases invulnerability and stuns/CC’s, this class becomes exceedingly difficult to deal with.

Sabbathius.1465:

For me personally, I would rate classes as Thief, Warrior, Ranger. Not because of their individual strength perhaps, but because the classes perform very well with an absolute minimum of effort. Not quite “Spam #1 and win”, but very, very close to it. It takes precious little skill to be highly effective with these classes. Just takes a bit of luck and positioning to totally wreck with them.

-Once again, a L2P issue where “Spam #1” professions are still giving you trouble, but for many of us are now kill fodder due to stun breaks and counters.

If I may direct you to: http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/333898008 in regards to Thiefs and their high damage. Notice the use of stun breaks to get out of their burst, moving out of range of their spammy attacks, and retaliating with Stuns / CC’s to easily overcome the foe.

Thanks for the reply Defektive. The thing is, I know the counters – the problem as always is that the counter cooldowns are always far longer than abilities you’re supposed to counter. Which is perhaps as it should be. Is a thief or warrior an issue when you have a stun breaker? Likely not. But when that stun breaker is on cooldown, it’s death most of the time. Or at least a very uphill battle as that one keystone ability will set back your health pool by as much as 70%.

This is sort of why Heatseeker was nerfed as it was weeks ago. Yes you could dodge it, for some classes more than twice, and yes you could do all kinds of things to avoid it. But a Thief could just keep on spamming until cows came home, and eventually he’d get lucky. It was a “bang for your buck” issue – where for relatively little initiative you got handily teleported in target’s direction and administered a hit. It’s a lot easier than say Death Blossom, which is actually incredibly painful to execute anywhere where you can fall off (where the smart player on the receiving end of it will stand).

Mesmer kiting is another issue I don’t really I guess “believe in”, if that’s the right expression. Mesmer is one of the most static classes in the game, if you think about it.

Staff #2 blink backwards is a very short distance displacement. And while it only has a 5 sec CD fully traited, it is incredibly predictable and doesn’t really help “kite” per se. It’s primary value is a root-breaker of sorts.

Decoy doesn’t move you at all, just puts you into stealth and creates a clone where you stand. Anyone who attacks a clone will also attack you, even though you’re in stealth you still take damage. And Decoy + roll is just as effective as roll really in terms of damage mitigation. Using up a utility slot for a clone + 3 seconds of invisibility on 40 sec CD hardly seems worth it, it’s primary value is being a stun breaker.

Blink when traited for range is nice, but it’s 30 sec CD stun-breaker, doesn’t even have stealth to it or produce a clone. Also it is very terrain-unfriendly. I’ve had many, many, MANY cases where it failed to move me at all on relatively flat terrain. And on complex terrain it’s best even not to attempt it, it’ll do more harm than good.

Coupled with how easy illusions die to AoE damage (and many of this game’s attacks are AoE), coupled with shatters not triggering “phantasm death effect” debuffs.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see Mesmers as much of a threat. Maybe I’ve just been playing as one too long and don’t fall for the obvious tricks. Now, some tricks are fun – like Decoy→Blink. But hey, that’s a 30 and 40 sec CDs and 2 utility slots blown to gain some distance basically, that a simple camera spin will nullify 3 seconds later.

Heck, in an AoE heavy battle, Mesmer is already crippled because illusions get popped by extraneous AoE effects before they can have an effect of their own or even be purposely shattered. Hardly the OP class everyone paints it as.

And the #1 spam classes, like Thief, Warrior and Ranger, you have to admit they’re very difficult to deal with unless you’re “fresh”. That is, with your breakers and cooldowns up. A warrior or a thief jumping into the thick of things when some/most/all of your cooldowns are blown will absolutely wreck you with just #1 spam. Few classes can do that.

I mean, HB is very easy to avoid. Unless you blew your rolls and your CC breaker is on CD. Then you eat it all and likely die. Considering fully traited it is a what, 8 sec CD?

But like I said, maybe it’s just me.

For Warriors at least, in order to achieve that burst you have to wait 60 seconds each time its possible. My most used stun break has a 20 second cooldown (traited). But once ina while I’ll bring a second one just incase.

There’s also the possibility that you may just need to pay more attention to your surroundings and to specific enemies. If I know a GS Warrior is fighting against me, but attacking an ally, I like to keep my camera angled towards them so I know when they are about to rush to me.

Just need to play more my man!

In tpvp things can change as you can have one member specialized in killing bunkers or maybe 2 full on condition damage that can outheal a guardian of this kind but as for pug skirmishes…

1)Guardian
2)Mesmer
3)Hunters

Thieves are ran by noobs, everytime i see a thief i feel like “free kill” they do extremely well out of the main battle and sneaking in to finish someone but thats it.

Necros can also be a pain in the kitten I’d say that if you don’t have any condition cleaner they are unbeatable i’ve seen onmyself 10+ stacks of hemorrage in a glimpse.