Guild Wars 2

I’m talking best class for zerging, roaming, scouting, soloing camps, and running away from enemies to avoid fights when I feel like it.

It seems like warrior would be the best class to use whenever I’m in the mood for any of these things. What do you guys think?

Roaming, scouting, soloing and running belongs squarely to the Dare Devil. Not that other classes are not good at it but nothing can catch a DD, it moves across the map ridiculously fast, it can reset most fights until it wins and it blows camps up in seconds.

Zergs… that is complicated but my vote would land squarely on the Guardian simply because it has dominated zergs longer than any class through every meta change.

Sidizen.9048:

I’m talking best class for zerging, roaming, scouting, soloing camps, and running away from enemies to avoid fights when I feel like it.

It seems like warrior would be the best class to use whenever I’m in the mood for any of these things. What do you guys think?

Of course this is all opinion based stuff, but here are my favorites for each of those.

Zerging
Staff ele running marauder/zerk or celestial.

Roaming
Dagger/Warhorn elementalist (build link is in my signature)

Scouting
Pretty much anything with passive movement speed, I scout while I roam and I roam on my Elementalist. I guess if all you wanted to do was scout, I would say a thief, warrior or Revenant would be best for this.

Soloing camps
Any class can solo a camp with the right builds. I personally like my Guardian and Roaming Elementalist the most for the camp soloing. Guardian can do the GS pull then drop traps to just destroy a camp in seconds. Necromancer is also very good at soloing camps, just pull the mobs behind a wall or something to LOS them then drop wells on them.

Running away from enemies
Thief, mesmer, engineer, ranger, warrior, revenant all pretty good at running away from enemies. I run Fiery Greatsword on my Elementalist so that if it gets too bad and it looks like there is no good way to win or if a zerg is coming, I can just drop that and get out.

Over all, the skill cap is a bit higher on Elementalist than Warrior – but both are pretty good choices for all of the above short of Zerging. Playing backline in zergs is much easier than front line.

Probably a mesmer. Lots of utility that translates good in all aspects of wvw. Generates moderate hate only if you are super glass one-shotter or stupid tanky condi-trash.

Ele is probably its equal in different ways. Doesn’t generally generate hate.

Berserker is pretty amazing too.

Pretty much every class can be made above average in all wvw modes.

I’d advise against thief for all-in-one. You will generate alot of hate in some modes that won’t translate well in others.

You may be wondering why hate lvl matters, wvw is exponentially harder when you are focused in every engagement and hunted while roaming.

Mesmer and Ele can currently fulfill every role, niche, or requirement, simply due to utility, versatility, and damage potential. Mesmer has portal, but Ele has aura share, so it’s a tie.

Grayclay.4579:

Mesmer and Ele can currently fulfill every role, niche, or requirement, simply due to utility, versatility, and damage potential. Mesmer has portal, but Ele has aura share, so it’s a tie.

I agree with this but would put mesmer over ele in roaming for the simple fact it has a access to stealth which is a nice eacape in wvw

Justine.6351:

Probably a mesmer. Lots of utility that translates good in all aspects of wvw

Cant say I have ever seen a decent mesmer frontliner. Or a backliner for that matter. Last I checked mesmers held a very niche role in the zerg, counting for maybe 1 out of every 20-30 player and the rarest class in the game outside of its primary use – perplexity roamer. Once, it was a true backliner with glamour confusion bombs but that was a loooooong time ago.

How on earth this suddenly translate to best class for every role I have absolutely no idea.

Dawdler.8521:

Justine.6351:

Probably a mesmer. Lots of utility that translates good in all aspects of wvw

Cant say I have ever seen a decent mesmer frontliner. Or a backliner for that matter. Last I checked mesmers held a very niche role in the zerg, counting for maybe 1 out of every 20-30 player and the rarest class in the game outside of its primary use – perplexity roamer. Once, it was a true backliner with glamour confusion bombs but that was a loooooong time ago.

How on earth this suddenly translate to best class for every role I have absolutely no idea.

Mesmers have wells now(tbh have no idea how good they are being i have never played mesmer)…i would say they are far off from best frontline tho(even full defensive would be hard to stay alive

Chase.2798:

Dawdler.8521:

Justine.6351:

Probably a mesmer. Lots of utility that translates good in all aspects of wvw

Cant say I have ever seen a decent mesmer frontliner. Or a backliner for that matter. Last I checked mesmers held a very niche role in the zerg, counting for maybe 1 out of every 20-30 player and the rarest class in the game outside of its primary use – perplexity roamer. Once, it was a true backliner with glamour confusion bombs but that was a loooooong time ago.

How on earth this suddenly translate to best class for every role I have absolutely no idea.

Mesmers have wells now(tbh have no idea how good they are being i have never played mesmer)…i would say they are far off from best frontline tho(even full defensive would be hard to stay alive

Wells are all pretty meh except for maybe gravity well.

Mesmers are most valuable for its boon share to zerg at the moment. Together with guardian and revenant, the frontline party can stack long duration of almost every boon in the game.

Other than that, it is still mostly the old utilities including veil, portal and null field. It is probably not the most fun class to play in zerg.

Okay, here is a breakdown of my understanding of each class in current meta

1 Guardian
Zerg
The key frontline member of both organized and pug zerg. Their party-wide stability is what made frontline train possible. They also have decent damage, cc and healing. Can also play a midline damage role with dragonhunter with its good aoe damage and mobility
Roaming
Meditation/trap DH has pretty good burst damage to roam. But it is the best with a small group rather than solo roaming. You will feel the lack of mobility and diengage if going alone

2. Revenant
Zerg
Very versatile in the zerg. Have high long-range damage, can also charge in. Really shines with an organized group providing resistance or 50% damage reduction.
Roaming
Extremely good in small group roaming with infinite chasing ability. Have decent sustain. With good teammates covering its weakness, it will be a nightmare for most enemy you see. Solo roaming is also possible but disengage can be a problem when outnumbered

3. Warrior
Zerg
Used to be the frontline meta but falling a bit behind recently. Still decent with its might/fury generation. Banner can turn tide of a fight. Have very good passive defense. Its sword F1 immbo and hammer F1 immbo in berserk mode are both very strong but requries quite a bit skill to pull off. Can also pin snipe with a rifle
Roaming
Very good roaming class in both solo and group. With decent sustain, high burst damage and good mobility and disengagement. Requires some skill to play well.

4, Ranger
Zerg
Not very useful. Pets are useless in zergs. Mostly serve as a healer role with druid traits. Can do some long-range damage to enemy backlines
Roaming
One of the best roaming class. Strong sustain and good damage. Great mobility and decent access to stealth. Also relatively easy to play. Can work in any kind of situation.

5. Engineer
Zerg
Jack of all trades but master of none. Can always bring something useful but not a must-have. It usefulness also decreases as the zerg gets bigger. Can be a scary force in relatively small-scale zerg fight.
Roaming
Very strong roaming class. Can play both sustain or burst damage. Have strong stealth and anti-stealth through sneak gyro. Can solo roam but really shines in a group.

6. Thief
zerg
Can be used to snipe backline. Can also be used to venom share which is pretty strong with ele and necros.
roam
The most prominent roaming class because of its access to stealth and unparalleled mobility. May have some trouble fighting tanky opponents. But with the ability to constant engage/disengage. It is not hard to find your prey.

7. elementalist
zerg
Staff ele is one of the most important backline member providing soft/hard cc, damage, water field. Have very good build diversity depending on what your focus is. Also capable of running frontline/midline with tempest. Aurashare and shout provides quick heal, damage reduction and condition cleanse. Also have good damage, defence and mobility to be a good frontline.
roam
Great to roam with a group. Also an okay solo roamer. Lacks a bit in the mobility department but can hold its own in most fights.

8. mesmer
zerg
Access to key utility including veil, portal and null field. Also strong at boon sharing to stack long duration of boons on your teammates. Not very useful after the fights start.
roam
Condition mesmer is one of the strongest 1v1er in the game. Also have decent mobility and disengage with stealth. But very bad at chasing down opponents. Very its bad reputation. Expect very few ppl willing to actually fight you. Usefulness decreases as group gets larger.

9. necro
zerg
The walking artillery of the zerg. The main damage dealer of a zerg. Very strong AOE damage and boon corruption. Can also walk up closer to frontline with reaper spec and providing a lot of chills. Capable of helping pin sniping with corrupt boon.
roam
Decent in 1v1 but has terrible disengage. Expect to die when being chased by a larger group. Condition reaper is very good in group fights.

That’s pretty accurate for everything, although I dont really see druids zerg healing. Their utility simply sucks. An ele cleric will serve the zerg much, much better IMO. Most druid/rangers seem to go the selfish build route.

Exciton.8942:

lots of relevant text

This is pretty much all you need, he nailed it.

For zerging the best class is the class your zerg lacks the most. From what I saw on Yaks Bend: the average pug zerg does not contain many frontline builds. I mostly see lots of casters and midline. With that in mind, the best class you can bring to your zerg is a frontliner: Dragonhunter guardian, any meta warrior or frontline Revanant. The guardian will be more valuable in general and your commander will be very happy to see you. This especially if you can get on teamspeak and listen to him drive so he can call leap commands.

Guardian, rev or ele would be my top recommendations.

All three are great in zergs either front line or back line for damage, they have great roaming builds that can keep up with most other roamers outside the few absolute best picks for roaming (condi Mesmer, Usain Bolt thief) and have flexibility to do what you want whether solo, small group, large group etc.

You will never find yourself thinking “oh we now have a Zerg and this class sucks for it”.

Honourable mention goes to warrior as I feel it can also be very useful too in all areas but be sure not to gunflame yourself. Druid can also be of use to back lines in zergs and is a great roamer too but would say the first 3 are better picks for zergs and on par for roaming.

mesmer condi and berserker – 2 classes that are 3 tiers above everything else. DD is next in line while all others are behind.

There isn’t post the condi change, frontline have to run healing + toughness, and condi clear and stability, which covers both stats and utilities. Leaving very little on the attack so most people are heading ‘mid’ the anet builds encourage this by the diminishing returns etc. So optimum is balanced. On that argument I’d say guardian but jack of all trades means master of none…. If I was whinging I’d say back line AOE needs the balance/nerf and you can see that happening now, then everyone in the middle! no roles! boo dull. is WVW tactics or enthusiasm, there are no right answers.

engineer. people hate on it in wvw but tahts jsut cuz either they havent played it that much or dont know how to think for themselves.

Stand The Wall.6987:

engineer. people hate on it in wvw but tahts jsut cuz either they havent played it that much or dont know how to think for themselves.

Yeah bunkers that can stealth 30sec every 60sec takes mad skills.

I play nothing but condition Mesmer in WvW. Still working out a few small details, but in General, does great as a roamer, Have beaten in a few 2v1. Does fine. Roams ok fine.

Run across a group, I simply stealth out, and get out of Dodge. Don’t run crono. Tried it, does not fit my play style, and wells seemed pointless. Seems like lots are relying on condition builds. I have plenty of condition removal.

tym.3791:

I play nothing but condition Mesmer in WvW. Still working out a few small details, but in General, does great as a roamer, Have beaten in a few 2v1. Does fine. Roams ok fine.

Run across a group, I simply stealth out, and get out of Dodge. Don’t run crono. Tried it, does not fit my play style, and wells seemed pointless. Seems like lots are relying on condition builds. I have plenty of condition removal.

Does it work well to frontline with? Or support heal? Or command with?

The topic was still best class for every role but everyone seems to have forgotten that, lol.

Dawdler.8521:

tym.3791:

I play nothing but condition Mesmer in WvW. Still working out a few small details, but in General, does great as a roamer, Have beaten in a few 2v1. Does fine. Roams ok fine.

Run across a group, I simply stealth out, and get out of Dodge. Don’t run crono. Tried it, does not fit my play style, and wells seemed pointless. Seems like lots are relying on condition builds. I have plenty of condition removal.

Does it work well to frontline with? Or support heal? Or command with?

The topic was still best class for every role but everyone seems to have forgotten that, lol.

Yup, seems people forgot that the OP wants classes that are good whatever they find themselves in and instead focus only on what they themselves play.

I still stand by my ele, rev and guard recommendation, in that order too with warrior not far behind.

Josh XT.6053:

Sidizen.9048:

I’m talking best class for zerging, roaming, scouting, soloing camps, and running away from enemies to avoid fights when I feel like it.

It seems like warrior would be the best class to use whenever I’m in the mood for any of these things. What do you guys think?

Of course this is all opinion based stuff, but here are my favorites for each of those.

Zerging
Staff ele running marauder/zerk or celestial.

Roaming
Dagger/Warhorn elementalist (build link is in my signature)

Scouting
Pretty much anything with passive movement speed, I scout while I roam and I roam on my Elementalist. I guess if all you wanted to do was scout, I would say a thief, warrior or Revenant would be best for this.

Soloing camps
Any class can solo a camp with the right builds. I personally like my Guardian and Roaming Elementalist the most for the camp soloing. Guardian can do the GS pull then drop traps to just destroy a camp in seconds. Necromancer is also very good at soloing camps, just pull the mobs behind a wall or something to LOS them then drop wells on them.

Running away from enemies
Thief, mesmer, engineer, ranger, warrior, revenant all pretty good at running away from enemies. I run Fiery Greatsword on my Elementalist so that if it gets too bad and it looks like there is no good way to win or if a zerg is coming, I can just drop that and get out.

Over all, the skill cap is a bit higher on Elementalist than Warrior – but both are pretty good choices for all of the above short of Zerging. Playing backline in zergs is much easier than front line.

Asphy you’re dumb jk bae love you

Dawdler.8521:

tym.3791:

I play nothing but condition Mesmer in WvW. Still working out a few small details, but in General, does great as a roamer, Have beaten in a few 2v1. Does fine. Roams ok fine.

Run across a group, I simply stealth out, and get out of Dodge. Don’t run crono. Tried it, does not fit my play style, and wells seemed pointless. Seems like lots are relying on condition builds. I have plenty of condition removal.

Does it work well to frontline with? Or support heal? Or command with?

I command, Roam, Pretty much keep it in the back like. The point, I was trying to make, and did not do well, every class, just about every build is gonna have it strong points, and its weakness.

In the End, you gotta find something that fits you, tweak it til it works best for you, cause no matter what you build today, depending on what Anet does, will need revamped down the road.

The topic was still best class for every role but everyone seems to have forgotten that, lol.

Exciton.8942:

Chase.2798:

Dawdler.8521:

Justine.6351:

Probably a mesmer. Lots of utility that translates good in all aspects of wvw

Cant say I have ever seen a decent mesmer frontliner. Or a backliner for that matter. Last I checked mesmers held a very niche role in the zerg, counting for maybe 1 out of every 20-30 player and the rarest class in the game outside of its primary use – perplexity roamer. Once, it was a true backliner with glamour confusion bombs but that was a loooooong time ago.

How on earth this suddenly translate to best class for every role I have absolutely no idea.

Mesmers have wells now(tbh have no idea how good they are being i have never played mesmer)…i would say they are far off from best frontline tho(even full defensive would be hard to stay alive

Wells are all pretty meh except for maybe gravity well.

Mesmers are most valuable for its boon share to zerg at the moment. Together with guardian and revenant, the frontline party can stack long duration of almost every boon in the game.

Other than that, it is still mostly the old utilities including veil, portal and null field. It is probably not the most fun class to play in zerg.

A good chrono can be ok in a zerg fight for tagging those pesky eles and necros, and for finishing off downed players as well as blocking some ranged stuff, but positioning is key and blink is a life saver. Can be fun to scout around with but most of the time I’ll stick with staff ele as both much better surviving and can run next to comm in water:-)

Ele really covers most of the bases just for sheer adaptability. Rev as well. Warrior kind of.

Ele is prob the closest to tops at switching between roles. You can be near immortal command, roaming, frontline support or backline insane dps with meteor shower dishing sick amounts of damage.

Other classes can cover the bases as well but lackluster in some roles.

Revenant or scrapper. Rev better in big fights, scrap requiring more skill and pvp experience.

Scrapper better for soloing groups and disabling due to sustain/stealth/superspeed combo.

Anyways both have high mobility, but id recommend rev if you cant play scrap on top gvg level

With ele, mesmer or thief youll get get hardcountered by high sustain and dps classes like the 2 above.

Warriors great with the recent buffs, just has less escapes after iniating combat and realising its lost fight

Role of the best at reducing fun in WvW goes to the" Ebolatasm Mesmer".

If you are a roamer, assuming you have a viable build, whatever class you are best on is probably your best choice. Roaming, like dueling, is more dependent upon individual skill than any sort of class advantage.

If you are looking for zerg fights, think GER (guard, ele, rev). Now I see the more serious fight guilds running a front line of mostly guards and revs, with maybe a warr or 2 thrown in for banners. Back line is mostly eles. No need for more than 1 mes for every 20 other players. Medium classes have few roles in a zerg.

Osu.6307:

If you are a roamer, assuming you have a viable build, whatever class you are best on is probably your best choice. Roaming, like dueling, is more dependent upon individual skill than any sort of class advantage.

^ This.

Osu.6307:

If you are a roamer, assuming you have a viable build, whatever class you are best on is probably your best choice. Roaming, like dueling, is more dependent upon individual skill than any sort of class advantage.

The keyword is really the “viable build” portion. If you don’t have one and a handful of “Meta” builds your going to be at a disadvantage. Also, these builds are mostly a “Rock, Paper, Scissor” design. So the only skill is really knowing when the run or when to engage.

For Roaming, let’s see there’s the garbo S/L Druid, condi shatter Mesmer, stun lock Mesmer, stun lock Warrior (both condi and power) and perma evade condi thief with healing. Pistol whip Thieves are slightly increasing in population again too.

The best “class” in WvW is to have class in WvW. Have fun, get wrecked, wreck others, and enjoy sharing. This goes double to those of us roaming around grabbing camps, sniping yaks, tapping gates, etc. We end up spending hours playing this Cat and Mouse mini game within WvW. If someones good, whisper them the compliments. If some has heart and comes back to fight you, even after repeatedly getting destroyed, whisper them the props for it. Having class and courtesy makes the game that much better.

Reh.5986:

Ele really covers most of the bases just for sheer adaptability. Rev as well. Warrior kind of.

Ele is prob the closest to tops at switching between roles. You can be near immortal command, roaming, frontline support or backline insane dps with meteor shower dishing sick amounts of damage.

Other classes can cover the bases as well but lackluster in some roles.

What build makes you “immortal” in the frontline?

Sidizen.9048:

Reh.5986:

Ele really covers most of the bases just for sheer adaptability. Rev as well. Warrior kind of.

Ele is prob the closest to tops at switching between roles. You can be near immortal command, roaming, frontline support or backline insane dps with meteor shower dishing sick amounts of damage.

Other classes can cover the bases as well but lackluster in some roles.

What build makes you “immortal” in the frontline?

My build does: http://asphyxia.tv/elementalist/ – and he did say “near immortal”, which is what my build will do.

To be viable in all roles I would probably recommend Scrapper with hammer. Great damage/sustain for small scale roaming, has decent mobility/stealth access for scouting/running from a zerg and can persist in a front line melee train. All classes can solo camps.

Sidizen.9048:

Reh.5986:

Ele really covers most of the bases just for sheer adaptability. Rev as well. Warrior kind of.

Ele is prob the closest to tops at switching between roles. You can be near immortal command, roaming, frontline support or backline insane dps with meteor shower dishing sick amounts of damage.

Other classes can cover the bases as well but lackluster in some roles.

What build makes you “immortal” in the frontline?

I run full cleric/support with traited stab on overloads and can hang fine with the frontline. Adding scrapper runes, damage reduc food etc etc + focus for an extra invuln and actually being good at ele gets you the rest of the way. You could go full cele too but I never saw a reason for it in WVW.

We have a really good commander that runs ele and leads the frontline. I swear he’s as close to immortal as I’ve seen. We also have a roamer ele that loves to torment small groups and even decent sized zergs. They prob run cele.

Justine.6351:

Stand The Wall.6987:

engineer. people hate on it in wvw but tahts jsut cuz either they havent played it that much or dont know how to think for themselves.

Yeah bunkers that can stealth 30sec every 60sec takes mad skills.

sounds like a personal problem. stealth gyro is easy to counter.

heavy: warrior is the best, because the superior escape speed. but if you are ok with the slug speed, others are good as well
medium: they are not good in zerg
light: ele is maybe the most versatile class in the game. necro is a slug, mesmer is a utility bot in zerg

There’s really no one class/build that’s the best at everything in WvW…if there was, then everyone would be only playing that one class/build. Just find classes/builds that you find enjoyable and play those, whether they’re for zerging or roaming.

Dawdler.8521:

That’s pretty accurate for everything, although I dont really see druids zerg healing. Their utility simply sucks. An ele cleric will serve the zerg much, much better IMO. Most druid/rangers seem to go the selfish build route.

This is amazingly wrong. I have two druids, one is fully capable of being a commander, let alone being in the frontline.

And I do huge damage and not just a little healing.

Maybe if you played a druid and knew the builds you’d have a clearer idea of their utility and not dis a whole profession for no reason.

Warrior is your best bet.

There aren’t any professions that are meta in every role in WvW (scout, roam, havoc, zerg, commanding) but there are a couple that do not fall in to the “useless” category in any chosen area.

Zerg
Warrior can provide buffs and support in zergs and can be a huge asset when using Battle Standard. Although much of their support can be matched by Revenant and Guardian, they can still earn their place in a zerg with their easy frontline capability and unique elite.

Commanding
Naturally tanky and having access to a lot of powerful passive abilities lend themselves well to commanding. Although again, many of their strengths can be matched by Guardian, Warrior is still a perfectly viable and even good profession for commanding. Staying alive and making the proper decisions are the most important things to do in this role. One of those things is based entirely on personal intelligence and the other is based on how well your chosen profession can withstand a beating. Warrior can take a lot of punishment so I would easily rate it one of the better ones for tagging with.

Scouting, roaming, small scale
Literally anything you are competent with is a good roamer. Of course some professions are more ideal than others but again as someone else has said, your skill is far more important than your profession in solo play.
Still, if we’re talking strictly what’s good and what’s bad, Warrior would fall in to the good category as it has excellent mobility and great sustain potential. The major issue with Warrior is that while it’s powerful in 1v1/2’s, it’s defenses are very easy to counter and become much less powerful the more outnumbered you are. Warrior has trouble with 1vX because it’s easy to kite out it’s Stances and blocks. Every profession is going to have difficulty in outnumbered fights but some can handle them better than others. Warrior does not handle this quite so well so it’s important to work mobility in to your build to counter this. Sword/Shield + Greatsword is always a good choice.

Warrior isn’t as good as a Guardian at zerging or commanding and it’s not as good at roaming as a Thief or a Mesmer but it’s absolutely acceptable for any of these roles without making any excuses for it’s viability.

every class can roam now, instead of best roaming and zerging classes how about the worst.

Worst roaming class Necro

Worst Zerging class Ranger

Everything else is in between to various levels.

Warlord.9074:

(…)
Worst Zerging class Ranger
.

Not entirelly true, but they can have peculiar places on a zerg, i would place ranger and thief/dd on same spot, the issue is that theres alot fo dumb AOE spam (all that is need on WvW), that people with classes good at finishing targets from close or far arent needed, all it is resumed to the gw2 nooby game of aoe/cleaves spam.

atheria.2837:

Dawdler.8521:

That’s pretty accurate for everything, although I dont really see druids zerg healing. Their utility simply sucks. An ele cleric will serve the zerg much, much better IMO. Most druid/rangers seem to go the selfish build route.

This is amazingly wrong. I have two druids, one is fully capable of being a commander, let alone being in the frontline.

And I do huge damage and not just a little healing.

Maybe if you played a druid and knew the builds you’d have a clearer idea of their utility and not dis a whole profession for no reason.

I main a ranger. I played support roles for years in pve. I played support roles where it was my job to support 7 other teammates in pvp. I know all about support and am most critical when it comes to that role…

Druid support is awful to play in zergs. Other professions do the zerg support thing better. You are not going to change the truth of the matter.

First and foremost, Druid was designed to pve raid heal where combat is close quarter and more stationary.

Heal support roles in this game are not good at all because the devs didn’t want to make healing support important in their original design of classes and combat. Now they try to fit more heal support in and are doing a less than stellar job.

atheria.2837:

Dawdler.8521:

That’s pretty accurate for everything, although I dont really see druids zerg healing. Their utility simply sucks. An ele cleric will serve the zerg much, much better IMO. Most druid/rangers seem to go the selfish build route.

This is amazingly wrong. I have two druids, one is fully capable of being a commander, let alone being in the frontline.

And I do huge damage and not just a little healing.

Maybe if you played a druid and knew the builds you’d have a clearer idea of their utility and not dis a whole profession for no reason.

there is so much bullkitten in this quote i’m sure this dude doesn’t play wvw at all.

Druid is fine as roaming because of the mobility + heals. Not that you may kill anything but at least you don’t die… But definitely not the best.

Best Zerg: Guardian. Has never faltered since release.

Best Skirmish: Bunker Tempest. Tough one but the support from these builds is incredible.

Best Roamer: Dare Devil due to the mobility and stealth. Not the best 1v1 by far.

Best Dueler: Mesmer

Worst Zerg: Thief

Worst Skirmish: Thief

Worst Roaming: Necro… just too slow.

Worst Dueler: Thief or any of the pure bunkers.

Straegen.2938:

Best Zerg: Guardian. Has never faltered since release.

Best Skirmish: Bunker Tempest. Tough one but the support from these builds is incredible.

Best Roamer: Dare Devil due to the mobility and stealth. Not the best 1v1 by far.

Best Dueler: Mesmer

Worst Zerg: Thief

Worst Skirmish: Thief

Worst Roaming: Necro… just too slow.

Worst Dueler: Thief or any of the pure bunkers.

This is pretty accurate, except Thief is a really strong +1 in skirmishes. I’d probably place Necro at worst in skirmishes, because it can’t stick to a target and it requires a lot of support to shine due to its inability to handle focus fire.
Also, best overall is a power berserker. Everything fears a decent power berserker.

No love for skirmish power shredder reaper

Cecilia.5179:

This is pretty accurate, except Thief is a really strong +1 in skirmishes. I’d probably place Necro at worst in skirmishes, because it can’t stick to a target and it requires a lot of support to shine due to its inability to handle focus fire.
Also, best overall is a power berserker. Everything fears a decent power berserker.

The thief has almost no group synergy making it poor in skirmish. Venoms are they best they have and those got watered down. Take that thief and put them in just about any strong skirmish class and the team just got substantially better. The only time a thief is a good skirmisher is with a stealth group, but that will get spanked by a bunker group every time.

The current meta has a Necro variant in skirmish melting groups with a ridiculous amount of condi. tRex now runs a condi variant and trust me, life sucks when 30+ stacks of bleed and a dozen stacks of every type of condi hits. One step, one activation and dead. I actively avoid them when they are running one in their mix.

Necro on top of Tempest, Guardian/Warrior with Durability runes attached. Put them on comms and it will take a small zerg to bring them down. It gets really scary with two Tempests one being Fresh Air. The stuns, condi bombs and their healing is incredible.

Straegen.2938:

Cecilia.5179:

This is pretty accurate, except Thief is a really strong +1 in skirmishes. I’d probably place Necro at worst in skirmishes, because it can’t stick to a target and it requires a lot of support to shine due to its inability to handle focus fire.
Also, best overall is a power berserker. Everything fears a decent power berserker.

The thief has almost no group synergy making it poor in skirmish. Venoms are they best they have and those got watered down. Take that thief and put them in just about any strong skirmish class and the team just got substantially better. The only time a thief is a good skirmisher is with a stealth group, but that will get spanked by a bunker group every time.

The current meta has a Necro variant in skirmish melting groups with a ridiculous amount of condi. tRex now runs a condi variant and trust me, life sucks when 30+ stacks of bleed and a dozen stacks of every type of condi hits. One step, one activation and dead. I actively avoid them when they are running one in their mix.

Necro on top of Tempest, Guardian/Warrior with Durability runes attached. Put them on comms and it will take a small zerg to bring them down. It gets really scary with two Tempests one being Fresh Air. The stuns, condi bombs and their healing is incredible.

That’s in a “melting group.” Most skirmishes are uncoordinated. Thieves do better in an uncoordinated skirmish because they are relatively safe, can use smoke fields and shadow refuge to stealth, and they close gaps very well.
In a gvg coordinated group, a thief is less useful. If that group wants to avoid zergs, they need stealth.
Necromancer will be left for dead in a skirmish of pugs as soon as things stop going smoothly.

Cecilia.5179:

That’s in a “melting group.” Most skirmishes are uncoordinated. Thieves do better in an uncoordinated skirmish because they are relatively safe, can use smoke fields and shadow refuge to stealth, and they close gaps very well.
In a gvg coordinated group, a thief is less useful. If that group wants to avoid zergs, they need stealth.
Necromancer will be left for dead in a skirmish of pugs as soon as things stop going smoothly.

I think we are getting caught up in nomenclature. I consider skirmish groups to be around 5 players with overlapping builds typically on comms. I have never heard of a “melting group” before.

To me Roaming encompasses +1 fights which the thief does excel.

Best Zerg: Guardian
Best Havok: Warrior
Beat Roamer: Mesmer or Thief
Best Scout: Mesmer or Thief
Soloing Camps: Any, with right build
Running Away: Thief