Guild Wars 2

Hello, me and 2 of my friends are old daoc players and looking to get away from wow. We miss roaming in open rvr. My friends are wanting to play a thief and Mesmer. What would be a good addition to them for a well synergized 3man. Thanks in advance!!!

I’d suggest either a support guardian, or a condi engi. Mesmer and thief can both easily drop agro, so the 3rd class is most likely going to end up taking most of the aggro. Because of that, you need either a tanky guardian, who also provides heaps of team utility, or a condi engineer, which can be both tanky and mobile, whilst being able to do plenty of damage.

It’s pretty important to have at least one member with decent condition damage. Therefore, if your mesmer and thief are both power builds, having a condi engi would be pretty vital for your comp.
Small group combat in gw2 is interesting, because it’s possible for everyone to pretty much sustain themselves, however having a strong support like a guardian can make it easier for everyone. It really just depends on how you want to play it

I’d say Warrior before Guardian. If you make a tank Guardian everyone will just ignore him, if you make a dps/condi guard he will be far glassier than dps warrior. The warrior can also give all 3 easy perma swiftness, freeing up runes and skills (guard can, but mark just isnt as good for smaller numbers, you want multiple marks), not to mention better mobility than guard.

That said… I would probably pick another range. Condi trapper ranger should be great for it. Or of course another thief/mes.

If the Mesmer and thief are going to utilise stealth (why wouldn’t they?) then some access to stealth would be good. Either ranger with some trapper runes, engineer, another Mesmer/thief or maybe a warrior with their obscene XY speed.

Additionally of you make a Norn then you can use become the snow leopard for a fairly easy escape tool. Stealth and charge away.

If you just want to gank players or pick at zergs, something with a lot of damage and stealth or mobility like another Mesmer would be the most effective. If you want to 3vX effectively or beat good players of the same party size who have a solid group composition, something with some sustain that can take/kite pressure yet still do damage is what works the best. Celestial D/D Elementalist would be the best for a party of that size to fit this role as it has much higher mobility and damage than support builds and can stomp effectively in the outnumbered situations with high protection uptime, Armor of Earth and Mist Form. It has better mobility and sustain compared to other builds that fit this hybrid role currently with some group support and CC thrown in. A support Guardian becomes more effective than a celestial D/D Elementalist in a full group of five mainly because of group stability combined with cleanses, but it’s not bad to have the Elementalist as part of that group of five either.

The expansion is so close though, things are going to change up; the amount of cleave damage on downed players seems like it will be insanely higher (Reaper, Scrapper, Herald, Chronomancer, etc) and there will be more abilities that can reveal players from stealth. I personally think that celestial D/D Elementalist will not be as strong as the new hybrids coming into the game such as celestial Scrapper, hybrid Druid, or with strong possibility, Herald. I also am not convinced that having dedicated support classes in your group will be necessary because of the amount of damage and CC being introduced on both ends of a fight, somewhat making it pointless in a way. Ultimately you can play whatever you want and just have to adjust your group’s methods of winning accordingly. Just expect to come across some groups that counter your composition more often than if you had a balanced group composition. Don’t rely on gimmicky things for your group such as venom share, full condition groups, all stealth group, and things of that nature and you will be much better off than most.

TL;DR The third person would be best as a hybrid character of damage/sustain/support if you want to play more seriously, and glassy stealth/mobility if not, but anything works in the end if you play to your strengths and weaknesses of your group composition.

anything should work tbh. just us TS & call mass & refuge.

you could even drag a necro along if ylu two can support him.

Pretty much everything BUT necro would work. Maybe with reaper, but necro just has nowhere near enough mobility for a 3 man. It would get slaughtered every time

Necro use norn elite and you don’t have to flee because epidemic kill everything.

Guardian is your only option (if you want to min/max).

If you just want to have fun you can play whatever you want.

Dawdler.8521:

I’d say Warrior before Guardian. If you make a tank Guardian everyone will just ignore him, if you make a dps/condi guard he will be far glassier than dps warrior. The warrior can also give all 3 easy perma swiftness, freeing up runes and skills (guard can, but mark just isnt as good for smaller numbers, you want multiple marks), not to mention better mobility than guard.

That said… I would probably pick another range. Condi trapper ranger should be great for it. Or of course another thief/mes.

Guardians don’t get ignored when the other two are a thief and a mesmer getting healed out their kitten

A lot of people in wvw pay no attention to the squishiness/tankiness of different people in enemy group, they still try to go ham on that fat norn guard in massive T3 while his dps buddies are killing them.

Plus if you got a non-stealth class with 2 stealthies, he’ll get focused no matter what when those 2 stealth up.

Guard would be really nice for a 3 man group, especially the thief would appreciate it.

Moleless.1462:

Pretty much everything BUT necro would work. Maybe with reaper, but necro just has nowhere near enough mobility for a 3 man. It would get slaughtered every time

Norn necro with snow leopard elite are fantastic for roaming.

A second Mesmer no doubt. The stealth overlap between three stealthers will allow you to blow up players and larger teams out of nowhere. You will even be able to fight on the outskirts of enemy zergs relatively safely. An Engi is certainly a decent option since it has some extra utility but Mesmers still rule the small man fights.