Guild Wars 2

I currently have a level 80 Asuran Elementalist and am thinking about starting a new character. This one is going to be primarily for WVW. I was wanting to get other’s opinions of what the deadliest class for WVW. I was considering a Necro but unsure yet. I do like being able to keep a bit of a distance for fighting but want some surviveability. Also what are your opinions on the race that has the best racial skills? I’m thinking Syvari for their ability to bind people.

Before anybody says it I know a lot depends on play style and experience. I’m just looking for general opinions of the public.

If you know it depends on play style… how about giving us what play style you are planning?

Well as I said I usually like to keep a bit of a distance although I am adaptable. I change it up with my Ele depending how I feel for the day. One thing I do absolutely hate though is using a glass cannon. I have too many distractions around me to the point where its hard to always pay full attention and I need to be able to take a hit. I do know how to dodge. With me currently using an Ele I know how to juggle multiple skills. I have also played with Mes and Ranger and liked both. My most common build is a Staff Ele. I like it in groups but hate solo with it because its a bit too squishy. But I do like the ability to do some damage and if I need to get out with my speed.

So basically Its hard for me to describe my play style as I get bored with one single style and I like to change it up.

I do like 1 on 1 fights although that’s hard to get in WVW as usually there are groups but I like running around Solo from time to time.

Not sure if any of that will be of help but yeah there it is. :-p

If there was one class that was “deadliest” in all situations, everyone would be running it.

If we ignore all melee classes/builds, as you say you prefer ranged, then that at least narrows it down a bit.

For fighting in large zerg fights from range, you’re looking either at Ele or Necro.

For solo/small-scale fights at range, your best bets are mesmer, engineer or pistol-thief.

It’s very difficult to build yourself for maximum effectiveness in all situations. You need to pick an area to focus on. If you prefer roaming, create a roaming build and accept you can’t do much in zergs. Or if you prefer zerging, create a zerg build and accept you’ll probably have alot of trouble solo. If you try and build for both, you’ll end up being sub-par at both.

Thief and warrior. Spam earthshaker and cluster bomb and collect bags.

If you plan on following the zerg then Ranger with valkyrie gear, scholar runes and sigils of force running 30/30/?/?/?

Get piercing arrows and Opening strike refreshes every kill and with that set up you should have close to 100% crit damage, 3700 attack and 100% crit chance everytime you kill someone and by the time you get off a “rapid fire” stacking vuln on people all up it works out to be +60% extra damage so enjoy watching rapid fire spike people for anywhere between 12k-17k…

Just try to flank and stay at the back, but like I said it’s a zerging build. Roaming on that build will get you killed instantly.

For pets get a red moa and brown bear – Brown bear is great for helping yourself and team mates remove conditions and red moa provides you with AoE fury, red moa is found on the east side above overlook in WvW and brown bear is southside of wayfairer foot hills underneath the vista in cave at north side of river. (level 3 area I believe, been a while)

Warrior… no question… warrior… yep warrior.

Only class in WvW that is a beast in almost every role (roamer, skirmish, zerg). They are the highest burst class, best zerg damage/utility (banner warrior), pretty much tied for best solo mobility (speed warrior), tons of control attached to a lot of damage. They even shrug off conditions and start with enough HP/Armor that most light/medium armor get only by stating for it.

So good they are finally nerfing the control/damage/speed warriors.

Straegen.2938:

Warrior… no question… warrior… yep warrior.

Only class in WvW that is a beast in almost every role (roamer, skirmish, zerg). They are the highest burst class, best zerg damage/utility (banner warrior), pretty much tied for best solo mobility (speed warrior), tons of control attached to a lot of damage. They even shrug off conditions and start with enough HP/Armor that most light/medium armor get only by stating for it.

So good they are finally nerfing the control/damage/speed warriors.

You write about warriors as if they are gods…

Which they are certainly not.

Mirsa.1628:

You write about warriors as if they are gods…

Which they are certainly not.

I didn’t say they were gods, but they are the deadliest overall class right now. A warrior is deadly in every role of WvW and has an edge over most classes in each of those situations. They are dominating the meta right now because they are relatively easy to master, have strong survivability, excellent control, great utility, excellent damage and again excel in most WvW roles.

I am pretty sure warriors kill more players than any other class in WvW right now. As I said before the current OP control/damage warrior is getting a big ole nerf Dec 10th and pretty much everyone saw it coming.

I play a stealth-based thief. I’m mediocre at it. The classes that I expect to lose almost any engagement are mesmers and d/d elementalists. Conversely, bearbow rangers are very easy to down, and I do pretty well against other thieves. Other classes, anything could happen.

I don’t know that is really reflects balance so much as it does my own knowledge (or lack) of other classes, along with the rock/paper/scissors aspects of specific builds.

A well played mesmer trumps all.

Engineer. Because we’re kittening awesome.

Top notch engi beats top notch anything else 1v1, except mesmer. Why go engi instead of mesmer, you say? Because we can 1vX better than a mesmer can, and really, how often do you get 1v1’s in wvw?

I roam on my engi, but it would probably still work if I wanted to zerg. But, you know, that won’t ever happen.

See links in sig for motivation.

Shanks R Us.2489:

Engineer. Because we’re kittening awesome.

Top notch engi beats top notch anything else 1v1, except mesmer. Why go engi instead of mesmer, you say? Because we can 1vX better than a mesmer can, and really, how often do you get 1v1’s in wvw?

I roam on my engi, but it would probably still work if I wanted to zerg. But, you know, that won’t ever happen.

See links in sig for motivation.

why except mesmers? we run similar builds and I don’t die to mesmers except if I screw up extremely. good necros however…!

and there’s no such thing as deadliest class op.

sephiroth.4217:

If you plan on following the zerg then Ranger with valkyrie gear, scholar runes and sigils of force running 30/30/?/?/?

Why would you do that?

Just take a look at runes of the ranger. They are cheaper and better in every aspect.
A single opponent with retal is enough for you to drop below 90% easily, while the runes of the ranger will yield you +5% damage regardless of circumstances, cause even if the pet is defeated, it’s still there, thus, the 5% damage bonus will apply.

Mirsa.1628:

You write about warriors as if they are gods…

Which they are certainly not.

When i think of Warriors and compare them to other professions it always reminds me of that song “Anything you can do i can do better”.

If you do play warrior make sure you have something to keep your eyelids open during battles.With all the cries of OP,I decided to take my warrior out in WvW.I dropped off after the 3rd battle,and was still killing people with my sleeping head on the keyboard.

I went back to my most used Necro the day after that.As with any game,it is what brings the most fun to me.

It’s kind of funny play warrior in zerg fight. No matter how bad you are you are still last one alive. Scary think that somebody who actually know how to play can play warrior too.

mesmer are fine,
1v1 duels,
1vx duels
small scaled groups,

however for large scaled groups, except having veil and portal, worst.. (eng and ranger dunno)

Keiel.7489:

A well played mesmer trumps all.

Okay, so as a new mesmer, how do I do that?

Qaelyn.7612:

Keiel.7489:

A well played mesmer trumps all.

Okay, so as a new mesmer, how do I do that?

I hit rabbit 2,000,000 damage

Cliff’s are still the deadliest.

Go necro if you like to play ranged and warrior if you like to play melee.
Necro got most likely the best survival skills in zerg fights among the ranged classes with DS and plague and do both great dmg and aoe blinds, boon strip and chill (chill on blind).
Necro is also very forgiving to play with both it’s high base hp and survival skills.

Kira.2903:

Go necro if you like to play ranged and warrior if you like to play melee.
Necro got most likely the best survival skills in zerg fights among the ranged classes with DS and plague and do both great dmg and aoe blinds, boon strip and chill (chill on blind).
Necro is also very forgiving to play with both it’s high base hp and survival skills.

sorry for raining on your parade, but anything with light armor and next to zero stability does NOT possess survivability in a zerg.

If you want to tank – ranger
If you want to burst – warrior
If you want to grind down masses of people – marks necro/staff ele
If you want to kill before (hopefully) you get killed – glass thief

Want a ranger that will be a pain in the kitten to deal with?
Run Sword + Dagger and Longbow/Greatsword (get both and keep either with you in the inventory at all times),traits: 0/0/30/20/20, armor/trinkets: PVT/Clerics mix.
Once a ranger hits 22k+ HP, 700+ Healing and 2.8k+ armor there is not much stopping it. With some well timed dodging/evades and you can pretty much outlast anything. This build WILL WORK for solo and skirmish and even zerging. You will not crit, you will not burst and you will certainly not OHK anything short of a rat/rabbit. On the contrary, you will not die unless you mess up.

I have most problems against mesmers, but try to avoid GS/Healing Signet warriors most. Not that they are deadly, but either it is going to be really long battle or then they reset fight many times (which would make it even longer battle) or both.

Mostly have now played necromancer, which is rather deadly but most of the times is committed to fight for lack of escape options. A lot less juggling skills with necro than with elementalist or engineer. Necromancer with staff + ground target wells can tag a lot of enemies in a zerg, but some don’t like necromancer spamming dark fields all over the place. Decent survival with necromancer, high health pool and Death Shroud.

As I’m almost certain someone has already mentioned (but I’m too lazy to read through right now), all professions can be deadly if used properly. It’s not really about finding a deadly class, it’s about finding which one YOU’RE deadly with.

However, there are a few classes that are somewhat more frightening to come across than others. Such as;

Thief; although the majority of them you won’t ever “see” in the first place.
Warrior; If built properly, it can take more than one person to bring them down.
Necromancer; For a light class, they easily have as much survivability as a heavy class. Not to mention if you roll a minion master you can trick people in to thinking you’re a group and not a single person.
Engineer; Although they take more practice than the other classes, if you run in to an Engineer they more than likely are as good as or better than you are. So don’t underestimate them. Engi’s are kind of the wild-card. They have such variety in regards to build it’s difficult to predict what they’ll be throwing at you.

Most deadly things to inflict on someone are probably;

Immobilized
Blind
Crippled
Poison
Bleed

There are more painful conditions to receive, but being immobilized or crippled can mean not being able to escape when you’re about to die. And personally I’ve found those are the conditions that decide the fight. So keep those ones in mind for which ever profession you decide to go with. I’m not certain since I haven’t been playing as long as others, but if I’m not mistaken just about every class has access to those conditions so if you have them, use them.

naphack.9346:

sephiroth.4217:

If you plan on following the zerg then Ranger with valkyrie gear, scholar runes and sigils of force running 30/30/?/?/?

Why would you do that?

Just take a look at runes of the ranger. They are cheaper and better in every aspect.
A single opponent with retal is enough for you to drop below 90% easily, while the runes of the ranger will yield you +5% damage regardless of circumstances, cause even if the pet is defeated, it’s still there, thus, the 5% damage bonus will apply.

On that build with that ranger I have troll urgent heal (not sure on exact spelling) and it’s something that works well for me in the back lines dropping DPS onto everyone else, not everyones builds will work the same for everyone else, was only trying to help out the OP with a rough ranger guide due to me having 2 rangers as my mains….. I can’t comment on other classes for DPS in zergs and my other ranger is set up for group work, roaming and sPvP…

Prysin.8542:

Kira.2903:

Go necro if you like to play ranged and warrior if you like to play melee.
Necro got most likely the best survival skills in zerg fights among the ranged classes with DS and plague and do both great dmg and aoe blinds, boon strip and chill (chill on blind).
Necro is also very forgiving to play with both it’s high base hp and survival skills.

sorry for raining on your parade, but anything with light armor and next to zero stability does NOT possess survivability in a zerg.

You clearly know close to nothing about necros, yet you are so eager to correct others and spread false information.

My necro has cloth armor, but I still have 27k Hp, and 2,8k armor while running travelers rune (could go tankier). My DS gives me another 19K health pool which replenishes almost instantly in huge blob fights due to the many deaths around me. Plague gives me 46k health and 20 seconds of stability, +AOE blind (next to zero stability, get out of here). Necro has the best condition and boon control in the game.

Transforming boons on enemies into condition, transforming condition on your allies into boons+another stability, Spectral wall (amazing aoe fear+protection on allies). Staff marks!

5 points in power trait (parasitic bonds 5 sec internal cd) gives 980 Hp after kill+sup sigil of restoration 670 Hp after ea kill + omnomberry compote ~1000Hp after kill =2650 after kills every 5 seconds (and 1700 in the meantime). Since you are tagging almsot every member of the Blob with necro, you ll probably never die, if you zerg does its job. With consume condition you can heal 13k on yourself depending how many conditions you have had on you.

I could go on how insanely strong necro is right now, but yeah you could say necromancers do not have many great escape skills. Its mainly because necromancers dont need them. If you are playing on a WvW server that specialise on running away from fight (there are a lot fo them) then you might wanna look for another class. Probably ele if you prefer to keep your distance.

Defiantly some interesting opinions here. The 3 that I keep seeing seem to be Warrior, Necro and Thief. Mes was also mentioned quite a bit but I already have one Mes and so I dont think ill be creating a new one just got to finish leveling it up. Looks like I have some tough decisions to make for my next one.

Im thinking either Warrior or Necro right now.
Ohh and Valheru My server does for reasons I will never understand have a tendency to run alot. Not enough people play and when we do play the zerg always seems to go to where the enemy has their largest group. They stay for a minute then run away… Not really how I like to play but if you are with a zerg kinda need to run when it runs….

a well specced thief can be godly.

@ Valhero Baal:

You should leave the blob from time to time. It might offer a whole new experience of play to you. It´s called pvp afaik…

Your healing example….wow!

DeathDragon.5197:

The 3 that I keep seeing seem to be Warrior, Necro and Thief.

They are quite different in terms of “deadliest” design however. Both the Necro and Warrior usually arent deadliest from a pure damage perspective – they are deadliest when they spec for immortality because you simply cannot bring them down. A zerker Warrior in particular is no match for any player with a decent amount of dodge and burst. Dangerous yes, but not the deadliest. VS the immortality bunkers, neither a balanced build or your average zerker stand a chance – another immortality bunker may at best wear each other down after 10 minutes of fighting but I wouldnt call that being “deadly”. Just resilient.

Personally I would rate the Thief the deadliest, because when they spec zerker and stealth and know what they are doing then no other class stand a chance (except possibly another zerker thief). Not even the immortality bunkers will outmatch them. It doesnt matter what build you got, you cannot kill what you cannot see and what return to 100% HP every time it reappear. And this is not from a “omg thief is so cool I drool all over myself when I play one cause I’m so awesome” point of view. I hate thieves. I dont play thief. I cant even play them anywhere near as good as the better players out there. But I still consider a very good thief the deadliest class.

Unless of course, its a trick question and we’re all supposed to say “zerg”.

Maskaganda.2043:

Shanks R Us.2489:

Engineer. Because we’re kittening awesome.

Top notch engi beats top notch anything else 1v1, except mesmer. Why go engi instead of mesmer, you say? Because we can 1vX better than a mesmer can, and really, how often do you get 1v1’s in wvw?

I roam on my engi, but it would probably still work if I wanted to zerg. But, you know, that won’t ever happen.

See links in sig for motivation.

why except mesmers? we run similar builds and I don’t die to mesmers except if I screw up extremely. good necros however…!

and there’s no such thing as deadliest class op.

well you see mask if you are still running the hgh build then you are at a disadvantage versus necros in 2 ways, the first is boons that can be turned on you which also leads us to our second problem, some necro anti boon skills are unblockable and hgh has a lot less access to evade then some other engineer builds which makes you a lot more vulnerable to their condition spam, however when it comes to your average mesmer you have the advantage of really hard hitting conditions and if you still rocking carrion you have some really hard hitting skills which makes a mess of mesmers lack of condition removal, where as an engi that has more dodge and a lot less damage can’t apply no way near the pressure your build can giving mesmer a much more time between cool downs, but either build one wrong move versus a necro can mean death for an engineer.

not sure if shanks still runs the same build but that could be the issue.

Straegen.2938:

Warrior… no question… warrior… yep warrior.

Only class in WvW that is a beast in almost every role (roamer, skirmish, zerg). They are the highest burst class, best zerg damage/utility (banner warrior), pretty much tied for best solo mobility (speed warrior), tons of control attached to a lot of damage. They even shrug off conditions and start with enough HP/Armor that most light/medium armor get only by stating for it.

So good they are finally nerfing the control/damage/speed warriors.

Then they met my mesmer and cried.

Qaelyn.7612:

Keiel.7489:

A well played mesmer trumps all.

Okay, so as a new mesmer, how do I do that?

Practice. I’m actually not a Mesmer player at all, not that I dislike learning their game play, it’s just I never really enjoyed laying cloth in any MMOs, any game actually.

But I can tell you this much from my experience playing vs a Mesmer. You can pick any build and gear set up you want, from the cheesiest to the lamest, the biggest thing that seperate a good mesmer from the bad one is how well you play to blend in with your clone movements. If you’re bad at it, you’ll be picked off by a bearbow ranger, great at it and you’ll have 5 men team chasing you around all day.

Moon.6371:

@ Valhero Baal:

You should leave the blob from time to time. It might offer a whole new experience of play to you. It´s called pvp afaik…

Where did you read that I do not? I simply responded to someone who said something incorrect about necros not being able to survive in teamfights. For the matter I really like trebbing but you dont really need a specific class to do that. I ve spent a fair share of my time in SPvP, even got some Qualifying points (for those who knows what they are) but SPvP is not in a state I could spend thousands of hours playing with. In WvW pvp is much easier I often fight and win 1v2, 1v3.

ukuni.8745:

Maskaganda.2043:

Shanks R Us.2489:

Engineer. Because we’re kittening awesome.

Top notch engi beats top notch anything else 1v1, except mesmer. Why go engi instead of mesmer, you say? Because we can 1vX better than a mesmer can, and really, how often do you get 1v1’s in wvw?

I roam on my engi, but it would probably still work if I wanted to zerg. But, you know, that won’t ever happen.

See links in sig for motivation.

why except mesmers? we run similar builds and I don’t die to mesmers except if I screw up extremely. good necros however…!

and there’s no such thing as deadliest class op.

well you see mask if you are still running the hgh build then you are at a disadvantage versus necros in 2 ways, the first is boons that can be turned on you which also leads us to our second problem, some necro anti boon skills are unblockable and hgh has a lot less access to evade then some other engineer builds which makes you a lot more vulnerable to their condition spam, however when it comes to your average mesmer you have the advantage of really hard hitting conditions and if you still rocking carrion you have some really hard hitting skills which makes a mess of mesmers lack of condition removal, where as an engi that has more dodge and a lot less damage can’t apply no way near the pressure your build can giving mesmer a much more time between cool downs, but either build one wrong move versus a necro can mean death for an engineer.

not sure if shanks still runs the same build but that could be the issue.

Oh sorry I forgot to respond.

I say mesmer is deadliest just because I’m used to phantasm mesmer being OP 1v1, from PvP. If they play really defensive and kite through their phants effectively, it’s very hard to beat, especially since I don’t have AoE.

Condi necros are tough, too, though. Just gotta know when to dodge, they’re basically the anti-us, though. We’re all condi & boons, they eat condis & strip our boons.

DeathDragon.5197:

I was wanting to get other’s opinions of what the deadliest class for WVW.

If there was a deadliest class, everyone would play it, and we wouldn’t need the other 7. Play what you want, they are all fun in there own way, all deadly depending on the driver.

Hexin.5603:

If there was a deadliest class, everyone would play it, and we wouldn’t need the other 7. Play what you want, they are all fun in there own way, all deadly depending on the driver.

You’re not supposed to state anything reasonable in this type of thread. You have to cry about [insert class here] being vastly more powerful than every other class in the game.

Try mesmer, it is highly adaptable for different kind of playstyles. I play shut down mostly now which is great fun dont expect a lot of loot in zerg combat tho since tagging multiple enemies can be tricky.