Guild Wars 2

So out of curiosity in the past few days of WvW I’ve been targeting a lot of people and checking both ally and enemy class icons. I found out that I apparently rolled the wrong class

At one point I had selected about ~20 ally and ~20 enemy players in the same fight (not my only sample size, just illustrating a point), and with the exception of two people (and myself), all were the following four classes:

Mesmer – Makes sense. Portal play is really useful (almost required) at the moment for zerg vs zerg, capping castles by hiding inside and portalling, etc. Not to mention summoning phantasms on walls to hit hidden siege, teleports, stealth, and general clones to muck up incoming AoE due to the 5 cap. MVP for WvW class IMO.

Thief – Very very mobile. I hate fighting these guys in the rare 1v1s, not because I die, but they are hard as heck to see/pin down. Usually it ends up in a stalemate until help from one of the sides arrives (if for thief, I die. If for me, he runs away). Very good scout/solo or small group roamer.

Elementalist – Definitely useful in sieges for the massive amounts of AoE. I’ve played one of these a bit as well and the combo fields and swiftness to group etc are nice too. A bit squishy though if you can pin them down.

Ranger – Seems to have decent AoE for sieges. Annoying pets that are reasonably durable and clog up tab targeting and incoming AoE. I don’t really feel these are overpowered, but that stupid roots ability is annoying as heck
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So do people just like these archtypes, or is there an actual “best in role” going on now that means these are 90% of the classes out there? And no, these are not the only classes….I do see the occasional eng/necro/guardian/warrior…they just seem very very rare by comparison.

I usually play a Necro, and I feel they are good at area control with well targeting/staff build, decent at supporting small group play, and good 1v1 with minion build (works for me anyway). I definitely wish for the stealths/combat mobility of several other classes though (not even any leaps for necro…sad), and for some actual burst. Death shroud is decent (if full) for sometimes surviving when people pull you off a wall to allow you to get back inside….plague form good for that as well. So while I don’t feel underpowered (aside from no burst whatever build I’ve tried…grr), I do feel that I must not be bringing as much to the table for the group if everyone is playing those other four classes.

Has anyone noticed this on other servers, or is it mainly something I’ve just been seeing here? Thanks for any good input!

Sorry if this topic is already out there, I did search but didn’t see anything like this specifically.

Maybe just in your server?

I’m necro, and in Zerg vs Zerg, as well as wall clearing, I net a lot of kills via AOE (when I’m on staff, all my skills from 1-0 are AOE or have similar effects).

Just make sure to place your wells (get the trait that lets you cast them without you being the epicenter) and marks in the right places and the right times (esp. vs. a Zerg), and watch those EXP indicators of kills pile up.

I do think it might be a server to server thing. Things i’ve noticed:

Stormbluff Isle = a LOT of beasts. I assume that’s ’cause of rangers.
Fort Aspenwood = a LOT of elementalists (having endless meteors on you is NOT fun haha)
Jade Quarry = a lot of guardians.
Eredon Terrace = lots of warriors.

That’s just from observation though, I could be wrong.

Engineer. Don’t see a lot of us, but I love it.

Necro’s and Engineers have been the classes I’ve definitely noticed less of across the board. Every Necro I’ve seen has been using a staff. he few engineers I do see are always hucking grenades, using mortars, and placing healing turrets. Seriously haven’t seen a single enemy engineer use other skills lol. (I happen to like my conditioneer with elixir gun tyvm :P)

Having played both I can tell you that both of these classes can handle themselves well in PVP. But it requires you to play well.

There are two things people gravitate towards in MMO’s.

1. Classes that are strong or overpowered.

2. Classes that are easy to play for at least decent results.

In that order. If they are both then even better.

I take great pride in choosing less popular classes and specs. I’m good at it. In my 10+ years of MMORPG history I can tell you that 95% (estimate) of classes that people say are underpowered or play less are completely viable. In most cases even good. They just usually don’t have the outright power or ease of use of other classes. People generally want something powerful and easy to use, to the point of definitively overpowered like Thief and Mesmer is currently.

Play your necro, it’s fine. And if your looking for big damage in a short amount of time try a pbaoe build. It’s ballsy, it requires you to have good timing and positioning skills, and it is high risk. But it can do wonders for breaking a zerg. Even better if you have people ready to back you up and take advantage of your bomb.

Enter zerg in some form of surprise>>>well of suffering>>>well of corruption>>>well of blood>>>your choice of aoe’s>>>>hope to not die>>>>profit either way. Mix up when you throw well of blood in to your own liking.

I think it must be your server, on mine there are simply zillions of warriors / guards, then thiefs & rangers, basically the faceroll / OP classes (OK, rangers aren’t OP, and guards ranged options are naff)

I used to see all Warriors, and Guardians.

Recently I’ve been seeing more mesmers (due to portals)
Thieves (due to stealth/invis)
Engineers, and rangers.

I have seen a slight increase on Elementalists, but mainly people playing them as alt’s.