Guild Wars 2

just wondering on the best class for damaging large groups/guards/lords enough to get loot bags?

My ranger tags everything for me at a safe distance :P

Gizmo……. wouldn’t happen to know some twins in Victoria?

This question again. It seems to pop up every once in a while.

Every profession has some build or skills or weapon thats usefull for tagging multiple enemies. Like a Staff/Well necro, or a Staff Guardian, or Longbow Warrior etc. So you should just play what profession you enjoy and find a build that works good for tagging.

But if you’re talking about the absolute best, the apex of tagging. The only answer is Grenadier Engineer. Any other answer is stupid.

That would be without a doubt staff / well necro with dire gear.
You can soak up much damage since you will will have about 30k life and 2700 armor and still have a really good damage output.
Staff => 5 aoe skills with big radius and good reach
Wells with life siphon => every well tags, has good support / debuffs, heals you
Death Shroud => 2 aoe skills and is basically a second life bar
Plaque Form => turns you into a super tank doubles your life for a time and has aoe dmg around you

I dont really like playing necros …. but if i let him out in wvw my bags getting filled like crazy

Terrahero.9358:

But if you’re talking about the absolute best, the apex of tagging. The only answer is Grenadier Engineer. Any other answer is stupid.

This is simply not true, i have a grenade engi as one of my main wvw characters ….Its true that grenade spam + bomb kit will tag most of the players and guarantee much loot, but you dont have the survivability like a necro (surviving longer thus tagging more enemies results in more loot ), the grenades have a delay before they land and do damage and also the radius is smaller.

Shortbow thief, no questions.

1-attack always hits 3 targets, cluster bomb is great for making groups, and dagger storm elite lets you tag half enemy raid passing near it when attack starts.

Terrahero.9358:

This question again. It seems to pop up every once in a while.

Every profession has some build or skills or weapon thats usefull for tagging multiple enemies. Like a Staff/Well necro, or a Staff Guardian, or Longbow Warrior etc. So you should just play what profession you enjoy and find a build that works good for tagging.

But if you’re talking about the absolute best, the apex of tagging. The only answer is Grenadier Engineer. Any other answer is stupid.

I have both Grenadier Engineer and Shortbow Thief – thief > anytime. Clusterbombs > greanades to hit walls, Shortbow > greanades to mark targets(plus, zerker thief SB in WvW makes like 2.5k damage per shot x 3 targets). Even in melee, you can just explode cluster bombs under your legs.

Engineers advantage is greater distance and ability to put constant pressure on spot/walls.

staff guardian is the best tagger and loot bagger

Necro or guardian

I like my staff Ele. I’ve been getting large amounts of tags. Just don’t stray too far from your zerg though. (as an added bonus I can usually hit farther in on the walls with blasting staff and Firestorm (targeting the inner spots on the protrusions help get it in a little bit more))

I think medium armor wins!

Thief is impressive with a hopping shortbow, spammable cluster bomb and dagger storm.

Ranger with Piercing Arrows is really good. Long range, can spam the shortbow attack endlessly and the axe bounces like the thief SB.

The engineer has bombs and most importantly grenades that are crazy spammable. So much so that retaliation is a real problem and reflection is deadly.

Light armor Ele and Necros can certainly hang but the mesmer pulls them down.

Guardians staff can be impressive but too short range… warriors definitely bring their group down.

Necro or guardian. There are other close 2nds but those are the best. I find staff ele more than sufficient. Thief can tag, yes, but has very little value in a zerg.

It’s only really Mesmers that lack good tagging abilities. Grenade Engi is crazy good for tagging everything around, just watch out for that retaliation.

OP, are you mainly just looking to tag as many enemies as possible during zerg fights while you stay out of harm? I would suggest playing a Staff guardian in PVE Lots of bags and little to no risk of deing.

Guardian.. Staff… 1…

Gumby.1708:

That would be without a doubt staff / well necro with dire gear.

Going to disagree and vote Guardian as well. I play both classes mainly in W3 and guardian is far and away a better tagger. Necro especially in Dire (mine is as well) conditions don’t get to hit before the enemies get downed from the hammer train and guardians of power. When I wore Carrion prior to Dire I got more tags, but still doesn’t compare to a guardian crashing thru the Zerg spamming 1.

It’s why people say go Power necro if Zerg running and Condi for more roaming/small man.

If marks actually went off on downed players it would not be so bad, but trying to kill downed as a staff necro is like trying to kill a Flame ram.

Staff guardian pressing 1. Also the symbol of swiftness on the guardian staff is a great way to tag more players too.

Staff guardian for front-line, necro for back.

If we’re purely talking tagging people, go with bigger symbols and consecrations. The symbol is huge, the consecrations do things, but also just add to your tagging ability. Spam staff one and aoe loot, then run in circles, throw symbols and fire fields into places you can’t reach with consecration ground targeting. I’m not sure anything compares.

Arrow Cart

Jaxs.5830:

Arrow Cart

Too bad you can’t move them…

If you really want to tag people, get in an omega golem. They’ll just come to you

This depends largely on what your typical fights are like.

If you mostly fight in big zerg Vs zerg high skill lag engagements then nothing beats Guardians. Skill lag fights are battles of #1 skills and Guardian has the best #1 for tagging.

If you fight in slightly smaller fights where skill lag isn’t a problem most of the time then I would say Well Necro’s.

I have played Mesmer, Ele, Engi, Thief, Necro, and Guardian all lvl 80 and geared in WvW and my Necro tags the best but as soon as skill lag kicks in Necro can suffer like other classes.

Mesmer – Sucks. You can tag decent but it is a LOT of work to do it. Even with shatter builds you are working way harder then other classes to tag.
Ele – Is ok but not great. Staff Ele’s spend a lot of time playing support though that detracts from tagging.
Engi – Ok but worse then Ele. Retail becomes a big problem. Individual grenades don’t do that much dmg so when hitting a big zerg you may need a few hits to tag. Their travel time is so slow that can be a problem too.
Thief – Good for tagging. Not as survivable as some of the other options. If you are dead you can’t tag. I found I had to disengage more with my Thief(I’m not a very good thief player though, it’s just not my thing).
Guard – Tags very well. I have the least experience with this. In skill lag fights they are amazing at tagging. Staff #1 = bags.
Necro – Best for everything else. With the right build they are easy to stay alive with. tons of AoE abilities. Power/Well builds tag easily. Plague through a zerg and watch the bags role in.

Anything but a Mesmer…

I have tried Ele, Engineer and Guardian. I like Ele most atm. Staff better thane Engineeer grenades.

Guardian also is good but atm in my matchup not that fun to play cause we often get pwned or pwn and the fights are short – which means not enough time to do damage to tag enough enemies(cause low damage build). Doing better eith Ele atm. But with longer zerg fights and better organized zergs(atm a bit bad at my server) I liked guardian staff.

I’m going to try ranger soo. Heard he is not good for WvW. Someone mentioned already piercing arrows. What about traps? Useful or not?

Necro. Tag ALLLLL the things.

Gumby.1708:

Terrahero.9358:

But if you’re talking about the absolute best, the apex of tagging. The only answer is Grenadier Engineer. Any other answer is stupid.

This is simply not true, i have a grenade engi as one of my main wvw characters ….Its true that grenade spam + bomb kit will tag most of the players and guarantee much loot, but you dont have the survivability like a necro (surviving longer thus tagging more enemies results in more loot ), the grenades have a delay before they land and do damage and also the radius is smaller.

Yes you can. Easily.

Staff guardian. If you aren’t specc’ed a particular way it might be debatable, but properly specced you are a tagging king.

what spec?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJAWBiQyeAAHoCC

Anything not filled out you can use your imagination. The main thing is Permeating Wrath and Supreme Justice. your Staff Auto will pretty much proc AoE burning, I suggest having +conduration to mitigate those who have -condamage, because if your burn doesn’t tick for at least 1 sec you do no damage with it and thus not tagged any target. Plus you’ll be helping even less. There is a decent DPS build with it less tanky than the normal build but stacking properly you shouldn’t see much of a difference.

Also you can pretty much just swap GS out for Hammer. Currently when I am using my farm bot, I just stay on Staff most of the time and do about 1-2k crit damage (before burning) on staff 1, I don’t have any cond damage gear, the burn is just a bit extra spice.

I mainly use Ele, Guard and Necro in WvW and of them Staff Guardian is the best for tagging.

My necro is condi specced though I imagine it may improve if I change it to more of a power build.

With guardian in “Altruisitc Healing” +"Empowering might" traits and staff auto-attack you can hit enemy, buff ally and heal you at the same time. If you want to stay alive and take part in the kill enemies, is a fairly safe way to do it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJAWRlUgqC33xLEf4ERWBRi9AjwPjXPSIFZIA-jkzAYrkhxgwbA0nholALiGbZMIthpxqmjqSHQFhpUTsHHwlkYnAmMAMLA-w

This is just an exemple, in my opinion, about a spec to do this in solo WvsW.