Guild Wars 2

Updated 6/30/2013

Tier List Key:
S = Superior (Highest Tier)
A = Average (All classes should strive to be here)
B = Below Average
C =

\\
The – (Negative) sign denotes that the class may fall into a lower Tier.
The + (Positive) sign denotes that the class may get bumped to a higher Tier.
The = (Equal) sign denotes that the class is equivalent to other classes with = in the Tier.
//
————————————————UPDATED 6/30/2013
Tier List v0.0.5 LATEST PATCH

Tier S
-Necromancer ( Just barely above Tier A+)

Tier A
+Mesmer
=Guardian (Slightly higher than Elementalist)
=Elementalist
-Engineer

Tier B
+Ranger
=Thief

Tier C
=/+ Warrior (Suggested it is not in a terrible position)

Previous list has been kept so people can compare the difference.

Tier List v0.0.4 5/4/2013

Tier List v0.0.3 POST PATCH

Tier List v0.0.2 PRE PATCH

Prefix:
Certain fighting games have a tier list to show which character(s) are on ‘top’ of the food chain.

This is usually depicted by number of tournament wins, available combos, and general skill cap, and match ups against other characters.

I propose a Tier list, updated every new balance patch to reflect what the community as a whole believe the top classes are.

I understand this is not perfect and would be happy to concede ownership of the thread to someone willing to maintain a much more detailed match up list.

Sound off below and based on the responses I’ll re-organize the list. In your response please provide a one-two sentence reason as to why you believe class A should be in position X. I’ll be updating the list every few new responses so as to not make rapid changes.

Danke.

I play ranger, mostly do duels these days, so thought i’d add my list based on 1v1 strength vs rangers XD

1. Other Rangers
2. Mesmer
3. Thief
4. Ele
5. Engineer
6. Guardian
7. Warrior
8. Necromancer

But on-topic, for actual overall game-effectiveness in tournaments etc:

1. Ele
2. Guardian
3. Mesmer
4. Ranger
5. Thief
6. Engineer
7. Warrior
8. Necro

oh god tier lists have made it here!

anyway, like the above poster I’ll just list the hardest class for me to deal with as an elementalist.

1. Mesmer (king OP)
2. Ranger
3. Other ele’s (provided that they’re good)
4. Guardian
5. Thief (good ones)
6. Engineer
7. Necromancer
8. Warrior (easiest and most predictable matchup)

Julius.1094:

Ele are the only class that feels particularly overpowered right now, and the reason is a too good combination of self healing, strong defensive cds, strong crowd control, high mobility and high damage. Thief and ranger are a little OP, but i wouldn’t say by much, the ranger mostly because it has too much evasive capability to be dishing out that much damage at range if played right. Thief burst is a little too good combined with such powerful disengage tools. When played masterfully a thief can either blow up a lot classes without them being able to react, or if they fail to do so, get away too easily. They are also too hard to focus on during team fights, the target mark should show up again when they come out of stealth IMO, which is guess is more of a system problem.

Mesmer is a balanced class, people don’t like it because they require you to actually pay attention and not just run in a steamroll. It’s just portal that is too good because no other class has a similar ability. We just need more classes that can do that.

Engi can be very strong, their issue is that most of their kits are underpowered, and while you can simply not use those, that does limit builds a lot. The only classes that feel particularly underpowered are necro and warrior. Necro because it has too many bugged abilities (corrupt boon, cough), and too little mobility and evasion for a class that isn’t bursty at all. It loses too much in dmg to pick up decent defenses. Warrior is the weakest right now, it’s far too susceptible to condition damage, which is nasty with how little healing it has. Its ranged damage is too mediocre, forcing it to go melee most of the time where it’s doesn’t have enough tools to escape or survive any kind of focus. In a team fight warriors are the easiest targets to lock down and blow up. Also, their traits are a mess and many underpowered traits and abilities leaves them with pretty much just one viable build that has become all too predictable.

Thank you for your response. However please note that I asked for a one-two sentence response as to why Class X should be in position Y.

Providing your own tier list is also acceptable as a helpful visual aid to your description.

I personally will not sit and read two paragraphs of reasoning for a tier list setup. I need to make that clear now before I get 20+ responses all with small essays in MLA format.

Please reformat your response in a clear and concise method.

Thank you.

Julius.1094:

Are you for real? My response is quite clear, I did not want to make an arbitrary list but rather just talk about what is or isn’t overpowered in what I see is a more useful way, but I did write an intelligent reply to your post. But hey, don’t read then my “whole two paragraphs of reasoning”, (and if you think two paragraphs are an essay you should get your college tuition refunded) I’m not editing anything.

I would think you would understand my reasoning. If people thought it was acceptable then I would get everyones 2cents on class balance in long form response. I need to take a strong stand on it early or risk getting dumped on with opinions and data that I have to piecemeal together.

Your opinion is valid, as is everyone elses here. Just please try to reformat your response in a legible way so that I can quickly skim through a it and edit the Tier List accordingly.

My man said MLA format lol.
My match up list

1) Ele
2) Ranger
3) Guard
4) Thief
5) Engi
6) Mesmer
7) Necro
8) War
Personal match list in terms of what I do not want to fight

Making a tier list based on classes is plain stupid without considering builds. The strength of a class changes immensely depending on what type of build it is running. For example, ele is only top tier due to 0-10-0-30-30 w/ toughness amulet, mistform + variations of it.

A proper tier list would be something like this (my opinion):

Tier 1 +/- variations:

0-10-0-30-30 d/d, s/d Ele
0-30-30-5-5 trap Ranger
Any guardian that isn’t running something like glass cannon condition dmg
20-20-0-0-30 Shatter mesmer or phantasm mesmer w/ portal, illu of life, time warp

Tier 2 +/- variations:

Every other mesmer (i.e bunker)
0-10-0-30-30 staff ele
25-30-0-0-15 Burst Thief
30-30-10-0-0 Staff+S/d well or condition Necro w/ res signet
30-10-0-30-0 HGH Engi / Bomb Kit Engi

Tier 3 +/- variations:

Bunker Ranger or SB ranger w/ 2 signets + stunbreak
20-30-0-0-20 100b Warrior
30-30-10-0-0 Staff+s/d well or condition necro w/o res signet
0-30-20-0-20 terror necro
100nades Engi / bunker engi
Attrition thief

Tier 4:
Everything else

I think i’ve gotten most of what I usually see

This is a rough draft as to how the community would like to accommodate a Tier List.

I should specify the Tier List is for classes based on tPvP and less on Hot Join.

The goal going forward is to establish solid builds by Tier hierarchy like you have described above for the top 2-4 builds per class. But I would like a solid foundation first before taking on to much.

Antihero.5429:

Making a tier list based on classes is plain stupid without considering builds. The strength of a class changes immensely depending on what type of build it is running. For example, ele is only top tier due to 0-10-0-30-30 w/ toughness amulet, mistform + variations of it.

A proper tier list would be something like this (my opinion):

Tier 1 +/- variations:

0-10-0-30-30 d/d, s/d Ele
0-30-30-5-5 trap Ranger
Any guardian that isn’t running something like glass cannon condition dmg
20-20-0-0-30 Shatter mesmer or phantasm mesmer w/ portal, illu of life, time warp

Tier 2 +/- variations:

Every other mesmer (i.e bunker)
0-10-0-30-30 staff ele
25-30-0-0-15 Burst Thief
30-30-10-0-0 Staff+S/d well or condition Necro w/ res signet
30-10-0-30-0 HGH Engi / Bomb Kit Engi

Tier 3 +/- variations:

Bunker Ranger or SB ranger w/ 2 signets + stunbreak
20-30-0-0-20 100b Warrior
30-30-10-0-0 Staff+s/d well or condition necro w/o res signet
0-30-20-0-20 terror necro
100nades Engi / bunker engi
Attrition thief

Tier 4:
Everything else

I think i’ve gotten most of what I usually see

Yay my glass d/d ele is not there!

If only they nerfed the things that made eles “op” instead of touching the general aspects that affect every build… but I bet they’ll destroy everything.

From an Engineer 100nade point of view :

1- Mesmer -> Too many defensive cooldown, simili stun breaker on weapon, shatter hurt and blurry fenzy is annoying.
2- Elem -> They have a bit too much of everything. Perma boon and best healing is also an issue for me.
3- Guardian -> Really good defensive cooldown, good healing, good armor. Not much damage.
4- Ranger -> Good ranger have good AoE, can build tanky and still have damage from pet. Lot of dodge.
5 – Thief -> Insta gib can be annoying if taken by surprise. Crazy mobility.
6- Engineer -> Depend of the build, but they have many weakness to be exploited. Still viable.
7- Necromancer -> No defensive cooldown, rely on chill and DS to sock up damage, but it’s not as effective has block/immune/dodge. They are good for support, not much else.
8- Warrior -> One trick pony sadly, they are still effective. For me it’s a good fight, but for everyone else I think they are the weakest class.

Walse.1749:

LOL, tier lists are completely pointless.
And i guess you guys are just casual pvpers.
Have you never seen what a good necro can do in paid tPvP?? All classes are viable, but it is remarkable that casuals like you think necro is so low on the so called ‘food-chain’.

Yup. I’m a casual alright. Never in my life stepped into tPvP ever no sirree bob.

Your parents should have taught you that if you don’t have something constructive to say, then don’t say anything at all.

1 – Elementalist To much damage for how well they can stay alive/To many Team Condi Clears
2 – Ranger Buggy Traits/To much Damage for how well they can stay alive
3 – Necromancer Condi Epidemic build Extremely strong AoE damage, Very tanky.
4 – Guardian Very Tanky, To much team Condi clear
5 – Engineer A lot of Viable builds, Great damage overall
6 – Mesmer A lot of Invuln, Good Spike damage, Best Elite in the game
7 – Thief High Damage, Easy to kill. Requires very good positioning to be effective
8 – Warrior High AoE Damage, Very difficult to get into the fight and survive

My point of view (r43 Warrior)

1- Elementist
2- Mesmer
3- Ranger
4- Engineer
4- Necromancer
4- Guardian
5- Thief
6- Warrior

Thanks fellas for your input. When we get 3 more responses in I’ll update the Tier List.

As an ele/necro, here is how I would rate it.

Based on 1v1 based, Ele, ranger and mesmer are at the top obviously. Thieves have good burst however you have to be quite good to be effective, but once you are….it’s difficult to play when the other team has a good thief. If there are two that are very good and well synchronised, well you just lose. Crazy, but true.

Warriors and Engis both have strong builds, and Necro has incredible team fight capabilities, but don’t excel at multiple aspects of the game. They are lower on the tier list, however are still good classes and IMO are close to balanced. Engis burst is a little strong, however can be easily balanced if out of hand.

So, IMO.

1) Ele
2) Ranger
3) Guardian
4) Mesmer
5) Thief
5) Engi
6) Necro
6) Warrior

And necro and warrior are definitely not weak classes. Which just goes to show…balance is really close O.o

If the burst is toned down a bit and ele sustain is brought down a bit…hopefully then anet can focus on making more builds viable without disrupting what appears to be a balanced meta!

Understand that Tier lists is based on what is successful for the most part in tournaments. It doesn’t always mean that a class is garbage when its at the bottom of the tier list.

Just putting it out there though simple-minded kids will say otherwise still.

Schwahrheit.4203:

Understand that Tier lists is based on what is successful for the most part in tournaments. It doesn’t always mean that a class is garbage when its at the bottom of the tier list.

Just putting it out there though simple-minded kids will say otherwise still.

Exactly this.

The inevitable goal of this is to have a way to show the developers what the sPvP community considers best/worse. The end result should be all classes are on the same rank or close to it – thus showing everything is balanced.

1. Ele
2. Ranger/Guardian/Engineer
5. Mesmer/Teef
7. Necro/Warrior

Engis are good, guys. I swear to god.

Agreed, so allow me to further what I believe gw2 to be at the moment

Tier 1: On every teams, sometimes 2
Ele
Ranger
Guard

On most teams
Mesmer
Thief

Still used, but not as much or successful
Necro
Warrior
Engi

1. Elementalist, Mesmer, Guardian
2. Ranger, Engineer, Necromancer
3. Warrior, Thief

Though i think all these 3 tiers are very close.

I’ll be updating the tier list in the next hour or so with the new data. Thanks for everyone’s contributions!

Based on player performance and rate of success.

1 – God Tier
2 – Too good for this game’s standard tier
3 – Above average Tier
4 – Okay Tier
5 – Below Average tier

1.) Ele
2.) Mesmer
3.) Ranger
3.) Thief
3.) Guardian
4.) Engi
4.) Necro
5.) Warrior

Opinion of a S/D Thief:

1. Guardian
2. Mesmer
3. Elementalist
4. Engineer
5. Thief
6. Ranger
7. Necromancer
8. Warrior

ele/warr/mesm POV

1) Mesmer – portal, TW, 1v1, teamfight, escape, burst
2) Ele – sustain, mobility, teamfight, escape, ok burst
3) Guardian – THE Bunker | bad mobility
4) Thief – mobility, best burst (requires good positioning, though), escape | squishy
5) Necro – teamfight, anti-bunker | no escape mechanism
6) Ranger – 1v1, pseudo-bunker, condition dmg
7) Engineer – can be/do everything, but sucks when compared to most classes – doesn’t excel at anything
8) Warrior – burst, teamfight (LB and some other spec’s), mobility | bad escape, predictable, long cooldowns, bad condition removal, doesn’t excel at anything

1)Mesmer
2)Ele
3)Thief
4)Ranger
5)Guardian
6)Engie
7)Necro
8)Warrior

DXIEdge.2789:

As an ele/necro, here is how I would rate it.

Based on 1v1 based, Ele, ranger and mesmer are at the top obviously. Thieves have good burst however you have to be quite good to be effective, but once you are….it’s difficult to play when the other team has a good thief. If there are two that are very good and well synchronised, well you just lose. Crazy, but true.

Warriors and Engis both have strong builds, and Necro has incredible team fight capabilities, but don’t excel at multiple aspects of the game. They are lower on the tier list, however are still good classes and IMO are close to balanced. Engis burst is a little strong, however can be easily balanced if out of hand.

So, IMO.

1) Ele
2) Ranger
3) Guardian
4) Mesmer
5) Thief
5) Engi
6) Necro
6) Warrior

And necro and warrior are definitely not weak classes. Which just goes to show…balance is really close O.o

If the burst is toned down a bit and ele sustain is brought down a bit…hopefully then anet can focus on making more builds viable without disrupting what appears to be a balanced meta!

Since when is ele’s burst a problem…? unless you meant other classes

1. Ele/ Mesmer
2. Ranger/Engi
3. War/Necro
4. Thief
5. Guardian

Serious.

Remember back in august through november it was something like.

Mesmer/Guardian
Theif
Engi/warr
Necro
Ele/ranger.

My how the meta has changed LOL

1. Ele
2.Ranger
3. Guardian
4. Engineer
5. Mesmer
6. Necro
7.Teef
8. Warrior

When people see an ele ….

[img]http://i.imgur.com/89y2kSS.jpg[/img]

“kitten it..now eles can use a weapon set which they can hit people with, omg eles are not a free kill anymore..run for your lives”

It’s hard to put each class in a list from best to worst due to all the factors that come into play but in my experience…

From a Bunker Guardian’s POV:
1. Elementalist
2. Mesmer
3. Ranger
4. Guardian
5. Necromancer
6. Engineer
7. Thief
8. Warrior

From a general POV:
1. Elementalist
2. Mesmer
3. Guardian
4. Ranger
5. Engineer
6. Necromancer
7. Thief
8. Warrior

Necromancer and Engineers are both really close imo. Necro’s are incredible against bunkers (which are obviously very popular) due to Corrupt Boon and unblockable Marks, among other things, so obviously I have more trouble against them as a bunker. Although, Engineer’s are strong in their own right with great CC, burst, and zone control plus the amazing utility from Elixir R and Elixir S. Even though Thieves and Warriors are at the bottom of the list I still think both are strong in sPvP. Warriors can put out absolutely ridiculous burst damage, are a little tanky from using Heavy armor with possibly a Shield in their second weapon set, and Vengeance can completely turn around a close team-fight. Thieves are similar to D/D Ele’s in that they’re incredibly mobile and can escape from almost any situation which makes them excellent roamers. Obviously though Thieves are much more focused on offense than defense so instead of massive healing and tankyness like an Ele they have massive burst and stealth’s utility.

In my opinion a lot of people undervalue Thieves and Warr’s because they’re meant to counter squishies but don’t do as well against bunkers (which are more common).

Haters gonna hate!

1. Engineer
2. Necro
3. Warrior
4. Ele
5. Thief
6. Ranger
7. Mesmer
8. Guardian

leashmaygoss.2140:

Haters gonna hate!

1. Engineer
2. Necro
3. Warrior
4. Ele
5. Thief
6. Ranger
7. Mesmer
8. Guardian

Huh?
You’re 2 months earlier, baddies will start QQ about engies in two months time after the rangers

each class performs differently in different comps.

Votes aggregated for revision 0.0.2

Just got home from work. Will be updating the list with all posts up until this one. Tomorrows / Maybe Tonights update (depending on how many Stellas I have) will be based off all posts following this.

Arheundel.6451:

leashmaygoss.2140:

Haters gonna hate!

1. Engineer
2. Necro
3. Warrior
4. Ele
5. Thief
6. Ranger
7. Mesmer
8. Guardian

Huh?
You’re 2 months earlier, baddies will start QQ about engies in two months time after the rangers

Inb4 bomb nerf.

The good ol’ days when thieves were nº1 threat are long gone :^T

Today’s (thief, engineer & warrior view):
1. Rangers (immortal to conditions until Anet decide whether or not EB is working as intended)
2. Elementalists
3. Mesmers
4. Necromancers
5. Engineer
6. Thief
7. Guardian
8. Warriors

Original post updates with aggregated results.

I did a line item of results tallying up how many of what class came in order, I then placed them in a tier hierarchy.

Example:

Tier B
-Mesmer
-Elementalist

This means that both classes have very close votes, but didn’t differentiate themselves enough to be in different Tiers. However, the mesmer had more votes and is thus slightly higher.

leashmaygoss.2140:

Haters gonna hate!

1. Engineer
2. Necro
3. Warrior
4. Ele
5. Thief
6. Ranger
7. Mesmer
8. Guardian

Bro they aren’t suppose to know yet!shhh!

I think warrior and necro should move up, necro for sure. Definitely not UP.

I’m also unsure if ele is on it’s own tier….I mean it’s strong. But is it really that much stronger?

Guardian is good where it is

Engi should get a +

Ok, as soon as I saw this dumb thread title I wanted to contribute with this:

Whoever wants to make a “tier list” from league of legends thread in gw2 is seriously kitten since there are builds and teambuilds, no tiers for single classes alone. This random bullshlt is making me mad. This is build wars not league of legends, which has xxx heroes instead of 8. Jesus.

Stop it.

/thread plz.

Harrywinky.8632:

Ok, as soon as I saw this dumb thread title I wanted to contribute with this:

Whoever wants to make a “tier list” from league of legends thread in gw2 is seriously kitten since there are builds and teambuilds, no tiers for single classes alone. This random bullshlt is making me mad. This is build wars not league of legends, which has xxx heroes instead of 8. Jesus.

Stop it.

/thread plz.

Tier lists have been around for much, much longer than League of Legends…..

It’s a standard measurement of Classes/Characters that’s community driven.

This has been in Street Fighter, Persona, Mortal Kombat etc.

No tiers.

Only builds. When they make the further updates people will see there is no “best class” or tier S whatever.
It is “better build” or “better teambuild”.

anet themselves do not support the idea of “tiers classes” in this game, it makes them have a poor image. this is not mortal kombat with 20+ heroes nor league of legends dota with 70+ heroes.

I remember the list where us elementalists were bottem tier lol

Like the approach Defektive, go go Tier List.

Harrywinky.8632:

Ok, as soon as I saw this dumb thread title I wanted to contribute with this:

Whoever wants to make a “tier list” from league of legends thread in gw2 is seriously kitten since there are builds and teambuilds, no tiers for single classes alone. This random bullshlt is making me mad. This is build wars not league of legends, which has xxx heroes instead of 8. Jesus.

Stop it.

/thread plz.

Another one of those that thinks that LoL started the big trends or something.

aahh…

TGSlasher.1458:

I remember the list where us elementalists were bottem tier lol

LMAO right

Harrywinky.8632:

No tiers.

Only builds. When they make the further updates people will see there is no “best class” or tier S whatever.
It is “better build” or “better teambuild”.

This may become true in the future when more builds are remotely viable.

Right now most classes have around 2 maybe 3 builds, but they both accomplish similar goals.

The current state of the game is simply (Class A is better than Class B.). Builds pose no role in this assumption simply because we don’t have the luxury of multiple builds per class being viable.

TGSlasher.1458:

I remember the list where us elementalists were bottem tier lol

I remember when people were laughing at me for running an ele way back in August/September, rofl

I think you are should rename your tiers a bit.

Tier S: best class or too much op
Tier A: slightly op
Tier B: good balance
Tier C: underpowered

With that said from Warrior pov:

Tier S: Elementalist (no surprise here i guess)
Tier A: Guardian, Thief, Mesmer. I’m little bit surprised that people putting thieves so low. As a warrior, you can be in middle of battle and suddenly you die to thief. In like second, you can go scratch, yawn, check your phone for sec or whatever and thats enough time for thief to down you.
Tier B: Necro, Ranger, Enge. I guess lots of people noticed potential in ranger, but I rarely meet some top tier rangers and they are ok with me.
Tier C: Warrior. Nothing makes me happy then to see bunch of warrior in enemy team. You know they gonna bulls rush you, and you know once you dodge it you won.