Guild Wars 2

Alright guys, I want to know what is the hardest class to play in GW2 pvp for you and why. Oh and one rule. To avoid Bias you can’t say your main class.

I will start. I main Thief and my hardest class to play is engi. My brain can not figure out which kit/switchable weapon to use and worry about cool downs that I can’t see. This is also the problem I have playing with ele. I do much better with maintaining a singular energy pool(initiative) and a few cooldowns on the utilities.

So how about you guys?

Lol, didn’t you say the one rule was you couldn’t say what you mained? Immediately followed up by what your main class is? Did I miss something here? Must be I need more coffee…

For me the hardest class to play is Thief because it squishes really fast and requires hairtrigger reflexes. I do far, far better in PvP than WvW as a Thief, though, because the power cap is far lower and it’s you have a finite number of enemies that you can focus on tracking.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Lol, didn’t you say the one rule was you couldn’t say what you mained? Immediately followed up by what your main class is? Did I miss something here? Must be I need more coffee…

I think he was saying that you can’t say your main is the hardest class to play.

Rising Dusk.2408:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Lol, didn’t you say the one rule was you couldn’t say what you mained? Immediately followed up by what your main class is? Did I miss something here? Must be I need more coffee…

I think he was saying that you can’t say your main is the hardest class to play.

Ah gotcha. Of course that wouldn’t logically make any sense (your main also being your most difficult class to play), at least to me. See, told ya I needed more coffee. XD

Back on the original topic, am I allowed to say “everything”?

In all seriousness though, I don’t think I have a pvp main as yet. I swap back and forth between ele and ranger pretty consistently; however, if we want to base it solely off of class with most number of games played, then ranger would win the ‘main’ slot.

As for hardest class for me to play, it’s a little bit of a toss up. I struggle with thief due to reaction time (something my ping makes very difficult) and with engi due to “ability overload”. So many kits and associated skills to keep straight, it makes my head hurt at times.

Elementalist for me. Everyone says D/D Cele is faceroll and although it is definitely powerful I’m not denying that, it’s also very hard to play, at least for me. So I give the people who play it well at least a bit of credit, even if it is very forgiving, for being able to remember all the cooldowns, etc. I just absolutely cannot do it and I’ve tried a number of times. I just end up panicking and doing crappy combos and poorly stacking might, etc. Idk why but I don’t have this problem with Engi at all. I’m assuming because there’s no cooldown on kits but I do just fine with Engi and can’t function with Ele, lol.

Thief would definitely be next but I don’t consider it the hardest for myself to play simply because I can actually make it work versus the average player. It’s just when someone actually knows how to fight a Thief that I get rekt, lol. I don’t have the proper reflexes to dance around people like a good Thief can.

It doesn’t at all surprise me that Necro wound up being my favorite class from the get go. All I really have to worry about is positioning and managing Life Force. Besides that I can afford to take a beating if the situation calls for it. Awareness is fortunately one of my greater strengths, it’s hard to catch me off guard (:

Bunker Guard for me. Everytime a teammate gets spiked or even downed i feel guilty for not having preprotected him. Its quite hard to see with the pace of gw2 combat. Prot monk in gw1 was way easier, even tho its been considered the most skillfull job(besides p-block). But maybe im just way too self-critically for that role. :P

Anyway, i think bunker guard is one of the hardest in terms of “perfect play” and makes me feel bad more often than other roles.^^

I would say that instead of class you should focus on specific builds instead. For example, a FT HGH Engi is pretty strong but not that hard to play. However, a Static Discharge Engi can be one of the hardest builds to run and do well with since much of its sustain is based around blasting your water fields and it’s not great against heavy burst and there are many ways to counter the Discharges.

Most classes have at least one hard to play build (that is also at least somewhat viable) and then a build that practically plays itself.

Necro I suppose – it’s the one class I’ve barely touched since release and I hate excessive ground targeting as well as the theme of the class.

HobNob – lol Engie is my main and I cant seem to grasp Thief. But good thieves are amazing. I love having one in my team.

I tend to prefer necro myself, play everything from minion mancer to well mancer and everything in between…and REALLY looking forward to more brawls as a reaper in the big team fights.

Hardest to play as? Thief for me, I hate relying on stealth as the only real defensive option. I tend to prefer tanks in MMOs…give me a class that takes hit after hit, laughing in your face as your best attack just dents the health pool a little…which may explain my love of necromancer…have 50k+ hp allows you to just tank the hits and keep right on coming…add to that the ability to put conditions on enemies and downright turn their buffs into debuffs with this current condition meta? Is just good times.

I have trouble making good use of eles for that same reason, they just can’t take a good hit without crumpling, so I just can’t use them no matter how hard I try.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I would say that instead of class you should focus on specific builds instead. For example, a FT HGH Engi is pretty strong but not that hard to play. However, a Static Discharge Engi can be one of the hardest builds to run and do well with since much of its sustain is based around blasting your water fields and it’s not great against heavy burst and there are many ways to counter the Discharges.

Most classes have at least one hard to play build (that is also at least somewhat viable) and then a build that practically plays itself.

That’s a fair point. For example, I can’t play a fresh air scepter/focus ele worth a kitten (I can’t get the swaps and skills off fast enough because of my ping), but I do ok on cele dagger/dagger or staff.

Engi in general gives me issues 1) because of all the skills I have to remember, and 2) all the ground targeting. Doesn’t seem to matter what build I try, I think they all use grenades and I just can’t seem to be able to move and toss those things. (Although I’m sure it’s probably quite funny to watch me try)

Thief for me the hardest, since you need different mentality for it. Ele would be the hardest also, but jsut because it woul be soooo boring, i would strugle to keep playing it.
The easyest for me is necro, since i main it.

I main a powermancer.

Definitely have the hardest time playing engineer. Thief is a close second.

Didn’t find D/D Ele all that difficult once you memorized the hotbars. Warrior is probably the most straight-forward class, but loads of fun. The rest fall somewhere in the middle.

Jackalrat.5493:

I main a powermancer.

Definitely have the hardest time playing engineer. Thief is a close second.

Didn’t find D/D Ele all that difficult once you memorized the hotbars. Warrior is probably the most straight-forward class, but loads of fun. The rest fall somewhere in the middle.

Wow powernecro. That’s a great build but I have trouble with it at the start of the match when I have no LF and have to cap home with an incoming d/d ele. yikes!

Engi i guess, the only class that needs to be practiced everyday to be good in my opinion.

Engie, hands down.

I admire engie mains.

It takes considerable practice to land skills. I’m trying to play one right now.

From difficult to easy in my opinion:
Engineer
Elementalist
Revenant
Thief
Necro
Mesmer
Warrior
Guardian
Ranger

From a purely mechanical standpoint, both engineer and elementalist have the highest skillcap, followed probably by mesmer, and then ranger (especially after druid).

From a reflexes standpoint, thief and mesmer.

From a “how actually be effective”, thief are probably the hardest to be effective on at high tier right now. Thief is pidgeonholed into shadow arts, so you have to be bursting and decapping frequently or you might as well be on a different class. Rangers also have a problem of getting very little done: doing very little cleave damage, giving out little to no healing or valuable boons, having projectiles negated by multiple reflects, pet not actually getting kitten done, etc. I guess you could call me biased, but my best numbers have come on mesmer/ele in games recently which i have many times less games on compared to my ranger/necro.

My unbiased list. I play all 8

Now: | Before June 23
engie | mesmer
thief | engie
warrior | thief
ele | necro
necro | ele
mesmer | warrior
guard | guard
ranger | ranger

Thief is hardest for me, but I can’t accept the thief role in PvP… I much rather scrim than +1 and decap only.

Necro in my case. I have never found a build I like or could get the hang of. Thief but just because at it currently is it is hair trigger reflexes or gg. Engi is kind of hard but it depends on what I am doing and if it is my go to build or not. I am fine with juggling but I still miss key binds when I switch builds.

ele, but i only ever gave s/f fresh air a go. needless to say I didn’t find it a very welcoming build, & i dont even think i have one match on ele.

hardest build was for me Mantra Mesmer. Only if you really use Mantra of Distraction for smart interrupts and not only for the free stun because of confounding suggestions. ^^’

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWl0nhy0YNawWNQtGLnG05Tiy1JDwCCaZGaeCA-TZBFABCcBAEvMwH7PswhAAgnAAA

Reasons

- Knowing what to interrupt.
- Being able to actually interrupts it.
- knowing the teleport-spots for Staff 2.
- Smart use of Portal.
- Pretty squishy build that can’t simply rely on stealth, but you need good positioning and awareness.
- Managing Mantra’s and channeling them at the right time is crucial.
- Teamplay and communication is key for the important spikes/stuns/boonstrip. If you make a mistake, often the target simply doesn’t go down.

Great posts from everyone! Really enjoyed reading these and learned a lot. I think it is a great idea to talk about specific builds as well if you wish. Keep them coming!

Probably ele for me. I know a lot of people say it’s an easy face roll class but I always get mixed up with my skills and attunements and when to pop what lol. I can play a decent heal/support ele but can’t do damage to save my life. X3

Well, I can’t comment on all the classes. I’ve played Ranger for 3 years now and 2000 some odd games. Mesmer for about 50 games. I can deal out more than twice as much damage on Mesmer with both Maurader and Carrion amulets and have much better team utility, and survivability with instant stuns, dazes, teleports, portals, etc.

So yeah. Mesmer is ALOT easier than Ranger. In fact, everything is. I am switching out of the class because I am sick of being stuck with useless under-powered, slow, ineffective skills. I don’t know how all of you can say the most useless class is the “easiest” to play. Easiest to loose with, that’s for sure.

I’d say Revenant without Dragon stance.

I have a really hard time getting my head around how to play Mesmer. The lack of good auto attack is kinda weird to me.

I’ve mained thief, but have switched to engi, so I’ll avoid speaking to both of those.

Outside of those, I would say that Mesmer is hard due to the fast reflexes required along with the unique skill mechanics.

From a pure number-of-buttons and number-of-cooldowns perspective, ele is the hardest.

edit to clarify This is saying how hard it is to play the class to the full potential and not how hard it is to play well enough to win fights.

Thief for me. Over the time since release i have tried every class in pvp. In the end i stopped on Engi and played it until the patch. At the moment i moved back to Celestial Signet Necro. It fits perfect for what i want to do.
The Problem for me on the thief is, that i have to focus much more on the map. Its my purpose to +1, decap and be smart in rotations. i love to have a smart thief on my team. but my normaly favorite play is going for sidenotes, take the 1on1 and survive untile my team shows up.

squishy dps builds are the hardest, because you have to play smart, time your dodges, time your condi clears and time your bursts, mistakes kill you, very little margin for error. You are either good or useless. So thief, ranger and mesmer (mesmer being somewhat easier).

Next tier: necro, bunker guard and engi. Necro has a lot of health, weakness, chill but its hard when you are focused (and you are always focused), lots of slow skills that you have to use wisely (including heal).

Any bunker guard can survive for a while but to be useful you have to support your teammates, rotate smartly, rez/stomp quickly. otherwise you are waste of roster spot due to no dmg (maybe even top tier for bunker guard).

Engi has good heals, blocks, invul, stealth, disengage, but its hard to play due to many skills and the need to chain different combos (weak dps if not executed properly). Still i would probably put is as easier then the above two. I just suck at (non turret) engi, so in my view its a bit harder then it actually is i think.

war and dmg oriented guards are a bit below. Lots of defences, high base armour, simple(ish) bursts. Though warrior has some problems right now, but in general belongs in this tier.

Easy tier: ele. Its just too forgiving, you can make tons of mistakes before the sustain runs out. Lots of skills but not a lot of combos to think about, most of it is fixed skill rotations, you have to do things in certain way and order (you dont “save” attunments or use them actively for the most part, only 1 good AA), most passives among all classes (condi clears, burns, heals, blinds, soft cc, hard cc etc.), dmg is steady, might stacking is easy, easiest disengage.
Hard for absolute beginners (lots of buttons to press), but very quickly you reach a level where you are highly effective.
Its not actually faceroll, and there is certainly a difference between eles of different skill-tiers, but even bad eles are very useful and tough to kill.

Notice the complaints after matches people always rage at rangers/thieves/mesmers. Those classes are very weak when not played good and you notice it. On the other hand, you rarely notice weak play by something like burn guard or d/d ele (outside of very stupid rotations and stuff like that unrelated to actual combat performance).
Same with noticing good play. Its very easy to spot a good thief/ranger when fighting with/against him. Easier classes, it gets harder to tell. If you asked me to list all the names of players i remember playing against, it would mostly be thieves, bunker guards, rangers.

My personal opinion from hardest to easiest(current state of game):
Thief- very squishy, requires most reaction time imo. Need good tactics
Power necro- not necessarily hard to deal damage but can be pretty hard to survive at times
Engi- only part that’s really hard imo is just getting a grasp on all the abilities. Other than that I don’t think it’s too terribly hard.
Medi guard- not too hard, if you blow all your skills you’re done
All of the rest of these are pretty easy to me:
Revenant- lots of easy damage and not hard to survive
Warrior- can have damage/condi damage while still being very tanky. Not hard to use
Mesmer- damage, surprisingly good survival. The damage isn’t too complicated to get off and is insanely rewarding. Pretty forgiving if you don’t get it the first time too.
Ele- it’s ele. Only build that is hard imo is s/d.
Ranger- high damage with the right build while still keeping decent survivability. Passive and active invulns.

Depends on the level of play. Thief is hard to play at lower tiers because you just get focussed on the minute you jump into a fight, necro is hard to play at higher tiers because it’s hard to disengage on necro.

I plus 1 the nec. If i get into a fight that turns against us I cannot disengage at all, I just die. Also I am not a good 1v1er on nec at all, loosing fights i propaply shouldnt (like against boon after boon after boon ele, i am just to stupid to kill those on nec, altough booncoruption should counter eles imo). And i cannot handle getting focused in 4v4s or 5v5s which happens almost every time if you enter as nec.
Also i only know very few good necros.

PowerBottom.5796:

hardest build was for me Mantra Mesmer. Only if you really use Mantra of Distraction for smart interrupts and not only for the free stun because of confounding suggestions. ^^’

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWl0nhy0YNawWNQtGLnG05Tiy1JDwCCaZGaeCA-TZBFABCcBAEvMwH7PswhAAgnAAA

Reasons

- Knowing what to interrupt.
- Being able to actually interrupts it.
- knowing the teleport-spots for Staff 2.
- Smart use of Portal.
- Pretty squishy build that can’t simply rely on stealth, but you need good positioning and awareness.
- Managing Mantra’s and channeling them at the right time is crucial.
- Teamplay and communication is key for the important spikes/stuns/boonstrip. If you make a mistake, often the target simply doesn’t go down.

It’s funny, that’s almost exactly the build I am using atm. It has its difficulties but it’s really powerful imo. Guess it all really comes down personal preference.

I always had problems playing a thief. Tried to get into it, but couldn’t really grasp it^^ I suck at thief.