Guild Wars 2

Community,

I’m curious about what you think the best and worst classes are for WvW. Tell me now! Gogo!

edit, because apparently I need to make this explicit :

This is assuming equal skill and proper fulfillment of the role. Yes, of course, a person playing their class well can outperform someone of a stronger class who isn’t.

all classes are good in their specific roles.

Monsoon.2589:

idari.4273:

all classes are good in their specific roles.

BAM thread closed

Asking this question is like asking: “What is the best food on a table?”

Or,
Maybe he was looking for people’s personal opinions and not a definitive best/worst class?

Some indications might be… him using the words “what you think”

Wait this is a trick question right?

The answer is… Zerg.

Best:

Guardians

Worst:

…

Personally I’d say guardian, purely for it’s supportive superiority e.g. stability, wardings, reflections, heals, boons etc.

Elementalists are a good second place with the enormous amount of combo fields they can place down.

idari.4273:

all classes are good in their specific roles.

So, all classes are equal, everything’s cherry berry and sunshine? Somehow I’m skeptical.

Come on, I’m not asking people to categorize classes into “ZOMG OP! OP!” or “USELESS!!”, but rather I’d like to get a temperature of what works and why.

Even if a class may do one role better than another role, how useful do you think that role is in WvW?

It all depends on your skill level. If you have skill, you can play any class and do well. Skill also helps when trying to counter the meta Thief and Ele players.

My oppinion :
1. elementarists (AOE /fields /block siege damage / finishers /area heal/bons – escape skill)
2. guardians ( aoe / aoe heals /boons /utility’s)
3. Memsers (veil / portal / time warp / aoe stealth)
4. warriors (cannon meat , strong melle attacks , high survivability against initial burst)
5. thieves ( scouts /roam)
6/7/8 necro /eng /ranger.

The fact that people may have differing opinions does not mean that “best” is completely subjective and cannot be measured. There are things that are objective advantages/disadvantages to each profession, although of course playing the one you enjoy is better than rolling a new toon just to be better.

For example, my list would be something like:
1. Mesmers: They can do several important things that no one else can. They’re also good in havoc groups and solo.
2. Eles: dominant zerg vs zerg glass cannon or super mobile havoc squad support.
3. Thieves: because harrassment is useful, and they are the best at it.
4. Guardians: some disadvantages vs. eles but a couple of nice control skills and a lot of boon spam.
5. Warriors: great at the front of zergs, lacking in other situations.
6. Engineers: because they have good might stacking, nice variety in condition output and abilities that hit a lot of people.
7. Necros: Good AoE and conditions. Less condition variety than engineers but naturally more tanky.
8. Rangers: Some really powerful stuff (they’re great in tournaments) but they don’t seem as strong to me out in the open world. They do have amazing 1v1 builds.

So, I ranked them on my own opinion but also on specific areas in which they excel, and how important each of those areas is in WvW.

Dahkeus.8243:

Community,

I’m curious about what you think the best and worst classes are for WvW. Tell me now! Gogo!

Best class:
Everything when you play as a team.

Worst class:
Players.

If you factor in the current meta game, I would say the following classes are most useful to a zerg group in WvW:

Mesmer: Portal/Veil/Timewarp/stealthing
Necromancer: Wells/Condition sharing/Survivability
Elementalist: Fields/Siege Blocking/AoE heal
Guardian: Reflection/Boons/AoE heal
Warrior: High DPS/Survivability/AoE Heals/Boons

From a roaming point of view, for those players who prefer to run solo or in groups of 10 or less, I would recommend the following, though if you want a build for this go look on the PvP section of these forums.

Thief: High mobility/High DPS/Burst/Survivability
Ranger: Mobility/Good DPS/Survivable/Traps
Mesmer: Survivability/Portals/Timepwarp/Veil/Mobility

The only class I would not really recommend for WvW in the current meta is Engineer. Don’t take it personally. They don’t really offer whjat other classes do for roaming or zerg fight situations in their current form.

Naerin.6753:

The only class I would not really recommend for WvW in the current meta is Engineer. Don’t take it personally. They don’t really offer whjat other classes do for roaming or zerg fight situations in their current form.

Thats a joke right?

Naerin.6753:

The only class I would not really recommend for WvW in the current meta is Engineer. Don’t take it personally. They don’t really offer whjat other classes do for roaming or zerg fight situations in their current form.

Engineer meta: Knock enemies off cliff, acquire bags

See Also: Grenades, Flammenwerfer, Bomb kit, Toolkit. I’m dangerous if I have the right tools out.

Warrior are the most versatile call. Ranged, melee, crowd control, support/heal. They are the jack of all trades class. I think most anyone could find a warrior play style they enjoy

Was looking at it from a purely group utility or Roaming/DPS Burst point of view. As far as group utility goes, Engineer does not excel when compared to the classes I pointed about above. I play Engineer also, and I love it to bits, but other classes do provide things which are more likely for a commander to want in their zerg group.

As said… No offence intended.

I play elementalist and have done so for the past several months so obviously I’m particularly partial to elementalist. I usually play d/d when roaming and staff when doing larger fights.

I put 1100+ hours into my mesmer before making the switch and I can honestly say that I’ve never really looked back.

Every class is good in wvw.

In a big open field fight everything is good if played right……….except ranger IMO

1) The pet will die even spec’d BM to aoe ,a lot of your condi removal/control/dps is tied to pet.(reduce aoe damage to pet talent would do wonders for ranger viability)

2) Barrage would be sick aoe damage…… but it counts as 60 hits…… drop it on a melee train take 60*350 (21k) potential retal damage…. gg

3) Brings good combo fields to the table but an ele/engi can do that with out having to spec 30 points into a semi useless tree for a decent oh kitten button.

etc

Ranger is really really good 1v1 ,small fights or just herpa durping in front of keeps skirmishing. Sadly anet doesn’t really look at balance around large organized wvw battles and ranger is really good in spvp right now so I wouldn’t hold your breath for changes.

ya QQ i know…. :P

From observation (I’ve not played all classes at an equal level) there are a few classes that seem to hold a lot of value in WvW – Mesmers, Thieves, Elementalists and Guardians.

I find that Necromancers are also very useful and perhaps undervalued. They are great for AoE against walls when attacking and also do well defending from walls. They can wreak havoc on zergs and can alternate to single-target power attacks with pretty good survivability. They don’t have the special utility of a mesmer, or the tank-survivability and team buffs that the guardian brings, but when used effectively they are magic in WvW.

I earn way, way, more badges with my Necro than I ever did with my Guardian, and I can actually feel my contribution when I drop Spite-Epidemic-Fear and watch the enemy zerg retreat, or when I charge in with Plague-Blind and watch the enemy zerg around me swing wildly and miss at everything.

Jackums.3496:

1. Elementalist
2. Guardian
3. Mesmer
4. Thief
5. Necro
6. Warrior
7. Engineer/Ranger

Mark Necros in siege situations are extremely useful. I’d rather defend against and/or attack a zerg with a lot of Warriors than I would one with a lot of Necros spamming AoE conditions all over the place. Perhaps I’m biased because I main a Mesmer with zero cleansing skills, but even a well-placed fear can mess up a zerg.

Yep, I just made a necro for farming zergs in WvW and they can absolutely destroy eles/guardians/engineers with corrupt boon, and then destroy the rest of their party members with epidemic.

Why do people keep underestimating warrior? Oh I know, that are a lot of crap warrior that only play glass cannon melee. Not saying all gc warriors are bad but a lot of bad warrior play gc

It depends on what you’re doing, the question wasn’t really specific enough.
i.e. Thieves are far and away the best scouting, gank squad and dolyak assassination class, but arguably the worst for large scale encounters. Guardian is pretty much the exact opposite, shines in a group, falls flat as a solo roaming class because it’s so slow.

“best” overall would probably be ele because it’s got a little of everything, but there’s a profession that’s better at each individual thing an ele can do (except maybe healing), so… your question is too vague.

thief mes ele
guard warr necro
engi ranger

there.

You need every class in an organized Zerg to be effective.

Guardians and Warriors are your front line. They take the beating and provide the utility you need with light fields, whirl finishers, area of denials, stuns, and general condition cure.

Eles, Necros, and Mesmers are the fields that really provide the buffs and boosts you need ikittenerg to out class a group. Properly placed Dark fields, Ethereal fields, and Fire/Water fields are key to winning a collision.

Thiefs are their own role. Scouting for the zerg and sniping dollies and camps solo can really help a server be successful. Plus thieves can finish downed people with ease.

Engis and Rangers are ranged damage that cleans up the walls or fields where it’s needed.

Every role is important, if anyone tells you otherwise they’re wrong.

If I had to pick the classes that a zerg needs the most or few of, I would say every team needs more Guardians, Warriors, and Eles. They only need a few Thieves, Engis, and Rangers. Mesmers and Necros should be a moderate number.

snip

Post removed for outdated information. Why are we resurrecting old threads anyway?

1. Elementalist
2. Guardian
3. Mesmer
4. Thief
5. Necro
6. Warrior

- Insert massive drop off in usefulness

7. Ranger
8. Engineer

Ranger > Engi because Barrage is a 1500 range (when traited) AoE and will hit things out of an ele’s Meteor range. Rangers also have access to lots of quickness and long duration stability, and can stomp easily in ZvZ.

Keep in mind that Plague Form’s blind, and the chill trait is borderline OP, and lots of necro marks can lockdown an area so mesmers can’t portalbomb you. Nothing like having 30 marks down between a breached wall and an objective.

You can easy see it when you observe guilds that run zergs. They never stack necros rangers or eng . Its always thieves guards eles. A net totaly drop the ball with class balance. They did adveritse gw2 pvp to be skill based and what it is just a proper class composition in the zerg. If you are lvling new alt get urself a thief and you will rule in WvWvW. btw “Stelth stomp” A net that was totaly lame idea, make sure to buff up thief in next patch.

Guardian — Boons from shouts, consecrations that can turn the tables on entire battles around, enormous staying power especially with altruistic healing, best source of area stability in the game, and best source of light fields around that provide retaliation and condition removal. Wall of reflection is one of the most useful skills there are. Tomes that give massive buffs or massive amounts of healing, you name it. I’d say Guardian is top notch for large scale fights.

Elementalist – Amazing staying power, area auras that give boons to everyone, static fields that can stop a zerg charge in its tracks, area cleansing, water field, area healing, and the ability to give boons through an amazing amount of combo fields. Staff ele also has one of the best siege abilities in the game – meteor shower. D/D eles on the frontline are also very much desired.

Mesmer — Glamour build is amazing. Confusion is one of the most devastating conditions you can put on an enemy army. Every flamour field provides it. Feedback is a complete counter to projectiles just like Wall of Reflection. Null field rips boons and cures conditions, time warp literally increases the killing power of your friends by two times. Portals for extreme zerg mobility and veils for extreme zerg stealth. Ethereal fields give chaos armor, which is also…for a lack of better words, kittening awesome.

Warriors — Hear me out here:

Hammer chain CC earthshaker WRECKS enemy zergs. Greatsword kills downed enemies possibly faster than anything else in the game, and it is very important to kill downed enemies. “For great justice” is quite possibly the best offensive group utility buff in game. As long as they have defensive support from guardians and eles to keep them alive they are a scary thing to find in the enemy army because of their killing and crowd control abilities. Battle standard can insta revive keep/castle lords for defense, and banners provide the fastest blast finisher in the game apart from cluster bomb. (banner 5 cooldown is per player)

Those are the best classes for WvW large scale in my opinion.

Thieves and D/D eles are the best roamers. Warrior with good defensive support can murder entire parties in the blink of an eye.

Overall I would say Elementalists are the best class for World v World.

You forgot veil. kitten that skill is a godsend against pugs.

I mentioned veil. It’s the only invisibility skill that doesn’t have a cap of 5.

Dont ask the forum what professions are doing good in WvW. Go and play WvW, here on the forums you get individuals spouting their personal take on things. But in WvW you will see for yourself, the professions that are underperforming are simply played less or more. Some, a lot less and some a lot more.

Dahkeus.8243

Next time you have to trick the community into giving you the answer(s) you wanted.

For example:
If you told the community that all classes pretty much are even in WvW and it doesn’t really matter what class you pick, you would’ve gotten a bunch of replies on how certain class is useless and how such and such class rocks.

common misconception is that warriors are front line damage soakers.
From my experience guardians and necros work way better as those who go gun ho into the middle of the zerg while warriors are better in the middle line who hammer smack the chilled targets.

warriors player who go up against competent groups and aren’t hiding behind the advantages of culling or safety in numbers factors,unless they are pumping 30 points into defense or traits just find themselves blowing up or having to retreat very quickly.

LieutenantGoogle.7326:

common misconception is that warriors are front line damage soakers.
From my experience guardians and necros work way better as those who go gun ho into the middle of the zerg while warriors are better in the middle line who hammer smack the chilled targets.

It depends on the support the warrior is getting.

My guardian gives all my allies around me the EXACT same boons and protection from wall of reflection that I myself am getting. I also run battle presence (as do a lot of other guardians) so the warrior is getting a free regeneration stack on top of the actual regeneration boon, soothing mist, and other things.

Most warriors I run with don’t have problems surviving on the front lines. In fact they are the first ones in and are able to push right through.

Most played Classes: Elementalist, thief, mesmer, Guardian, Warrior
Medium Played Classes: Ranger
Least Played classes: Engineer and Necromancer.

With all being said skill level varies upon players. There can be good and bads of all these classes however the entry of skill level are different for each. You would have to put a lot more effort playing a necromancer than you would a thief or a elementalist.

I think people have noticed this and that is why you see people who want an easier class they can handle that has a predestined amazing build that has already been found.

IMO, I find Necromancer’s extremely undervalued in zerg vs zerg because there aren’t a lot of them. In theory 4 necros can effectively make a 20 man zerg miss attacks for 20 seconds, have poison which decreases healing for 20 seconds. This would effectively make zergs useless. The reason people haven’t bothered with this is that its hard to get four necros together in wvwvw because there are so few of us. Also I run a power build because I found condition spreading isn’t as effective due to the zerg’s capability of cleansing every second.

I also have a D/D ele specced with the famous DAphoenix build. Its pretty easy once you know rotations. However for some odd reason I find my necromancer a lot more fun even though its more demanding. Go figure.

LieutenantGoogle.7326:

common misconception is that warriors are front line damage soakers.
From my experience guardians and necros work way better as those who go gun ho into the middle of the zerg while warriors are better in the middle line who hammer smack the chilled targets.

warriors player who go up against competent groups and aren’t hiding behind the advantages of culling or safety in numbers factors,unless they are pumping 30 points into defense or traits just find themselves blowing up or having to retreat very quickly.

I agree with this somewhat. It all comes down to builds. People want to deal damage and that is it. A good cc warrior build has fairly heavy spec with full tank gear ( invader set works well with melandru runes). As a stated in an earlier post there are a lot of bad warrior giving the class a bad image

Hey,
I won’t tell my favourite/best class for WvW, but I’ll talk about pros/cons of the 3 classes I play. It’s not objective, it’s only my opinion, concerning what I’m looking for in WvW so take it as opinion and not as advice.

Mesmer (using GS & S/F)
Pros : Stealth, mobility , swiftness/control (focus), very fast ranged tag (#1 GS), survivability, reflect
Cons : Pretty hard to reliably tag in AOE (shatter, GS #4 … then you wait :P), condition removal (if you get spammed while running I mean, with immobilize, you’re kittened :P), no reliable stability

Elementalist (Staff or S/F)
Pros : Very high survivability (almost godlike with earth focus :P), insane condition removal (ER), great mobility, swiftness (sigil of the air), lots of control (staff) and good AOE = good tagging in zergs and good damage while defending/attacking towers, not subject to reflect in fire/air (scepter), Swirling Winds (focus)

Cons : Slow to tag (staff and scepter), “only” 900 range (scepter), lack of reliable ways to tag in zergs (scepter)

Guardian (Staff & Hammer)
Pros : lots of support, reflect, boons, great survivability (especially with AH), not bad condition removal, block ennemy moves (staff & hammer), insanely reliable tag in zergs, mobility, swiftness, stability for allies

Cons : cannot reliably tag from ranged (over 600)

That’s all I remember at the moment, but I probably forgot some points. Also these are only my thoughts, please share advice if you know “fixes” to my cons.

KratosAngel.7289:

Hey,
I won’t tell my favourite/best class for WvW, but I’ll talk about pros/cons of the 3 classes I play. It’s not objective, it’s only my opinion, concerning what I’m looking for in WvW so take it as opinion and not as advice.

Mesmer (using GS & S/F)
Pros : Stealth, mobility , swiftness/control (focus), very fast ranged tag (#1 GS), survivability, reflect
Cons : Pretty hard to reliably tag in AOE (shatter, GS #4 … then you wait :P), condition removal (if you get spammed while running I mean, with immobilize, you’re kittened :P), no reliable stability

Elementalist (Staff or S/F)
Pros : Very high survivability (almost godlike with earth focus :P), insane condition removal (ER), great mobility, swiftness (sigil of the air), lots of control (staff) and good AOE = good tagging in zergs and good damage while defending/attacking towers, not subject to reflect in fire/air (scepter), Swirling Winds (focus)

Cons : Slow to tag (staff and scepter), “only” 900 range (scepter), lack of reliable ways to tag in zergs (scepter)

Guardian (Staff & Hammer)
Pros : lots of support, reflect, boons, great survivability (especially with AH), not bad condition removal, block ennemy moves (staff & hammer), insanely reliable tag in zergs, mobility, swiftness, stability for allies

Cons : cannot reliably tag from ranged (over 600)

That’s all I remember at the moment, but I probably forgot some points. Also these are only my thoughts, please share advice if you know “fixes” to my cons.

No matter, how you look at it, you missed the point.
Being able to tag != being useful.

Dahkeus.8243:

idari.4273:

all classes are good in their specific roles.

So, all classes are equal, everything’s cherry berry and sunshine? Somehow I’m skeptical.

Come on, I’m not asking people to categorize classes into “ZOMG OP! OP!” or “USELESS!!”, but rather I’d like to get a temperature of what works and why.

Even if a class may do one role better than another role, how useful do you think that role is in WvW?

Warriors are best because of F1 Hammer, Endure Pain (which can be traited and utility skill slotted for 10 seconds of combined invulnerability) and one-handed + shield for another 3 seconds of blocking attacks…. Add in 3500 Armor class and 32K HPs with a shout PTV build… They laugh at danger….

Guardians are best because they buff the heck of groups and can heal up/condition remove to the point it’s virtually impossible to kill them. Especially when they’re running heal-builds w soldier runes…

Necromancers are best because they can condition-down those annoying mesmers in no-time flat plus consume the conditions the mesmers drop for heals! Way cool, that….

And so on and so on and so on…

It’s all rock-paper-scissors… And the question was just silly, though some people did point out the obvious — what’s best depends on you, your build and the rock-paper-scissors of class strengths and weaknesses….

Just keep telling people how bad Engies are in WvW.

I am fine with being a minority.

Zynthetic.2954:

1. Elementalist
2. Guardian
3. Mesmer
4. Thief
5. Necro
6. Warrior

- Insert massive drop off in usefulness

7. Ranger
8. Engineer

Ranger > Engi because Barrage is a 1500 range (when traited) AoE and will hit things out of an ele’s Meteor range. Rangers also have access to lots of quickness and long duration stability, and can stomp easily in ZvZ.

Keep in mind that Plague Form’s blind, and the chill trait is borderline OP, and lots of necro marks can lockdown an area so mesmers can’t portalbomb you. Nothing like having 30 marks down between a breached wall and an objective.

I’m going to second this post, with one slight alteration.

The top 3 belong in one category: Very Useful.

The next three in a second category : Useful

The last two : Waiting for Anet to revamp.

It’s not a knock on any one class. WvW is just different and unforgiving. Things that are a minor annoyance in PvE cause death in WvW. I like Rangers and Engineers concept wise, but they don’t stack up well in WvW except as support classes.

That being said, you can play them in WvW and not really suffer that much. They’re just not as good as the other classes. I see literallt TONS of ranger pets running around in battles, so it’s not uncommon. I see lots of turrets too, so people do play them.

But if you want to show up and have the ‘Here I am!’ battle changing feeling, stick to the top 3. Elementalists have such great flexibility. Guards save people’s bacon with stability and boons. Mesmers are zerg busters. These are the corner stones of any WvW group.

One exception is the Necromancer. There are one or two secret builds out there that take a long time to master, but once you do… you can be in the top group, maybe even competing with the Ele for best. But those players are soooo rare and the build and playstyle so obscure and aquired taste that normal people like you and I won’t be able to handle it.

D/D daphoenix build is not good in www…..at least against good commanders/zergs.

What are best classes? those required to play www noeaday….
Those who most groups Always have and ask for:

Glamour mesmer
NECRO
Guardian
Thief (scouting)
If possible 1<=== staff ele for area swiftness (and to switch to focus in case of defending against trebouchet but this will be probably fixed) or water fields in sieges.

This is what you commonly see in zergs nowadays……expecially by organized www guilds…..

If you saw some tactic involving D/D in its current status (20 sec CD rtl) please tell me….

Would be really useful….but as long i have to cross a wall of ethereal fields and marks….there is no cond cleansing or healing that works….

Not to mention that with current lag you are stuck in a single attunement with no healing….also cannot stack boons.
nuff said….

P.S: i see low tier servers players may have a diffferent concept……
When a “zerg” is made of 5-6 players i can see things are different ( i played in a low tier server also).

lunyboy.8672:

Just keep telling people how bad Engies are in WvW.

I am fine with being a minority.

Seconded.

If people value their sanity they won’t roll engi ! Let us poor souls who had the misfortune of going with engi roll around in a puddle of our own tears and leave us be.

LordByron.8369:

D/D daphoenix build is not good in www…..at least against good commanders/zergs.

I don’t understand why you would think so.
I play d/d ele, and i think it’s very good! And when the zerg is balled up (they do that alot) you have an amizing potential for dealing alot of damage.

because aoe cap paired with low damage.
Because you cannot cross necro and mesmer fields….nor attack from range.

But also the lack of damage :| as u often see in vids, unless our opponent is a full glasscannon

Seems the same daphoenix prefers staff for zergs…(also he changed to mesmer ._.).

About Engies i saw how good they are in small skirmishes….
But what about zergs?
(asking because i never seen many in zergs)

Sad to see almost everyone considers Engineers to be useless

…and Jon Peters thinks the solution is buffing turrets /facepalm

Mif.3471:

Sad to see almost everyone considers Engineers to be useless

…and Jon Peters thinks the solution is buffing turrets /facepalm

Not useless. Less useful. It’s not the fault of the players who play them and enjoy them. The class just needs some attention.

Mif.3471:

Sad to see almost everyone considers Engineers to be useless

…and Jon Peters thinks the solution is buffing turrets /facepalm

get a group good speced Engi’s, make a elite turret spike on the other zerg and observe how many went down, grab bags run next zerg.

The best class is the one you enjoy!!!! :-) That’s why everything I write is completely subjective to my own point of view.

Most functional answer’s have been already given. Leaving how you feel and identify with the class label. For example, I can’t bring myself to play a necro or thief. The RPG portion of the game just will not let me do it. I might try to justify a “white” thief again, who knows.

For play style, I’m a support player who loves siege. Also, I dislike/hate frenetic game designs like dodging. Let’s be honest, there really isn’t much skill to it. It’s just frenetic energy leading to an adrenaline response. That is it’s true design purpose. Thus, my faves are my shout Rifle Warrior and Staff Ele. Ranger’s are fun too. My Mesmer was built just for portal purposes. I built a Guardian a couple weeks after release. Still at level 6 or so The lack of good heavy armor options keeps me from leveling her. It would visually become a clone of my warrior eventually.

For the lack of love for an Engi, I built one just for the fun of sweeping with the flamethrower!!! Bar none, the best sweeper in the game

Good Guardians for sure. Mesmers and thieves are good as well. Whats interesting is how few people seem to realize how underground OP a well played engineer can be in 1v1’s. I’ve seen one completely wreck all comers in a duel circle.