Guild Wars 2

[Moved my thread from PvP to WvW as suggested]

Hello all. I am completely new to GW but I have played many other MMOs. I understand there are a lot of differences in GW2 as compared to other MMOs. I am trying to decide on a character to level and I am torn between pretty much all of the professions. They all seem fun and I have leveled a few to 5 already and still can’t decide.

So here is my question, if someone here would so kind as to help me out.
What are each of the Professions jobs in player versus player (mostly looking for large scale battles) and what professions are currently the best. What I am looking for is if someone could order out maybe even just what they believe is the current top 3-5 professions and what their role essentially is in the battlefield.

For example something like…

1. INSERT PROFESSION HERE – their role is to mostly (deal aoe damage, do damage from far away, do melee damage, support allies, heal people, tank damage, control enemies, debuff enemies, buff allies, purge buffs/debuffs, boost speed, stealth or whatever this game calls for )

This would be greatly appreciated in helping me decide which profession to level. Even just one or two profession descriptions from you guys would be amazing. Thank you!

Your server would help, as well as what types of play you’re interested in.

For Zerging, I’d go with Guardian or Warrior, but at easy to learn and are wanted in zergs.

For Roaming solo: Thief is the best one, but also Ranger and Warrior can do well. This is harder to learn in general, not because of the classes, but because of soloing in WvW can be frustrating.

Small Groups: Most anything can work, the group composition matters more.

But if you’re on a Tier1 server, you will probably not get much chance to solo roam, and if you’re in Tier8 server you’re only going to see small zergs 1-2 hours a day. So it depends on server and play time etc.

An all over recommendation, Warrior works for everything, and is easy to learn.

The current core to large scale fights are warriors, guardians, elementalists and necromancers. Warriors and guardians are the frontline who are tanky and support each other and they almost always need to move together with the commander.

Elementalists are important support class that provide combo fields for allies and some aoe control/dps. Necros are the main blackline dps and capable of corrupt the opponents’ frontline boons.

Mesmers and thieves are usually the given the gank roles as they can use their spike dps to down those backlines that are out of positions.

It’s very situational man. This depends a lot on your tier and your own playstyle. For big fights, the word is “GWEN” (guardian, warrior, ele, necro). For small group/solo roaming – everything can work, although high mobility/stealth classes are much better.
I suggest you go to PvP and just try out different professions and different weapon sets (I mean – just on the training npcs there, since you will be 80). When you are like: “I want to play this profession, with this weapon set(s).”, then we can give much better input.

Every profession has damage, healing and party support abilities so there’s no role trinity.

Warriors and Guardians are wanted because of technical oversights. For example the Guardian’s Line of Warding skill can create an uncrossable wall for 5 seconds that knocks down all foes trying to cross it. Since WvW is played with huge blobs of players, this can have devastating effect on the blob. Natural counter of blobbing – AoE damage – is limited to affect only 5 targets.

Solo playing is plagued by poorly implemented mechanic of stealth, which has no counterplay and allows classes that have it to engage and disengage fights at will.

I think you’ll have the most fun if you don’t take the game too seriously. It’s a freak show with each class competing with others in overpoweredness.

Go Elementalist IMO. Each main hand weapon provides a very distinct playstyle for the class and they are currently seen as one of the best classes in the game. They have a bit of a learning curve for new players because of their attunement system, but they can be very rewarding if you stick with the class and truly master it.

While they do have the lowest health and armor of all classes in the game, you’ll be surprised just how survivable they are once you get going.

The only major downside to them is many consider them to be overpowered and who knows how ANet will address the issue come patch time next year. They also tend to be a bit more support oriented in organized play because of how powerful a lot of the staff skills are.

Once you get a character to 20 (I think?) you’re allowed to queue for PvP. You should definitely give that a shot with a couple characters to see which ones you really like and you can see first hand how the different weapons for each class affect the way they play.

Good luck.

Warrior is problably, by far, the most forgiving class and is a perfect fit for new people playing the game.

• Their class-specific mechanic (Adrenaline) is easy to understand and control.
• They have a huge health pool while also having a high armor due being a heavy armor user.
• Healing Signet regen is a big boost to warrior survival.
• They have a large array of weapons that allow them to be played in many ways. Be it Frontliner, Suport or kill group.

The drawback from warriors is exactly the same reason why they are good: THey are simple… Other classes mechanics are much more interesting, and once you get the hang of the basic game mechanics you really should try the other ones.

One would argue that Guardian is also a forgiving class. I wouldn’t disagree, however their little healthpool leave less room for mistakes unless you’re running tanky build. A full zerker guardian is much more likely to die than a full zerker warrior for exemple.

If you want to play in BIG teams pick warrior or guardian. Most servers need them as hell. If you want to play alone ore with 1 or 2 friends use thief or mesmer. There is a lack of necros, eles in HC wvw guilds, but first you must to prove yourself what is very hard, because there are a lot of casual nec, ele
Roles: warrior: dps/tank/cc/heal/support
Gua: support/heal/dps/tank/cc
Ele: heal/dps/cc/support
Nec: dps/cc/support
Mesmer: put veil

In roaming (solo wvw gameplay)
Warr: melee chopchop or condition tank and escape master
Ele: good in everything. Facehuger kitten + escape
Gua: facehug burning kitten
Nec: condition, fear but (nearly) 0 escape
Thief: kitten invisible facehuger with ultimate escape. Can be condi or dps
Mesmer: cloning fuker, nearly as anoying the thief. Can be dps or condition
Engi: need to be very skilled to play this clasd
Ranger: everybody want to kill you first. Good in nothing. High risk, low reward. Good against very new players with “random” evaid sword or with 1500 range longbow

McWolfy.5924:

Ranger: everybody want to kill you first. Good in nothing. High risk, low reward. Good against very new players with “random” evaid sword or with 1500 range longbow

- Ranger deals thieflike damage from range. Rangers are primary targets because when a ranger chooses you as a target, unless you have projectile reflect or invisibility, you will go down.

Top 5 professions in order or importance (IMO of course): guardian, warrior, elementalist, necromancer, mesmer.

I will not tell you what to play, as that all depends on skill level and what you are interested in doing. Here is my unbiased opinion of what I have observed each class to do in WvW. I have the most experience in GROUP FIGHTS with elementalist and mesmer, so please correct me if anything I say about the other classes is wrong!

Front Line players will always be on the commander using control skills, buffs, condi clears as called for.

Guardian: Guardians are tanky. They provide group stability and other buffs (might, retaliation) to allies. They commonly use staff, hammer, and/or great sword. Weapon skills and utilities control enemy movement. Their health pool is lower than a warrior, but they make up for it in defense. My only con to guardian is they are slow, but if your group is organized they should always have swiftness.

Warrior: Fairly tanky. “Shout” builds are common, which allow lots of group condi clear. They commonly use hammer or great sword and sword + warhorn. Hammer is for enemy control and warhorn for condi clears. Utilities provide self stability, condi clear, and buffs. They have an elite banner skill that revives allies from down state, which can save a fight. Great mobility if using great sword and sword + warhorn.

Backline players will only be on the commander before engaging an enemy. Once engaged, they will move around as necessary. Also once engaged, many commanders will not command their backline; . You are, for the most part, expected to know how to position yourself and be able to cast skills that are called for.

Elementalist: Does a bit of everything, and mostly will use a staff. Staff provides enemy control, damage, self-defensive skills, and most importantly heals (water fields) for the group. Being an ele can be tough at first, as you are the most targeted by the enemy’s thieves/any class built for picking off backline. It’s important to be aware of your positioning so that you can continue to support the zerg.

Mesmer: Is here for their utilities. For the most part, you can run any weapon combo you’d like and any build, unless you are running with a strict guild group. Most commonly called for are veil (a line that turns players invisible when they cross it), and portal (commonly used for “portal bombs,” where your group hides and you drop a portal for them on top of the enemy. Also used to move siege golems more quickly across a map). Mesmers have some really neat tricks, like being able to hide in enemy keeps/towers and portal players in so that breaking down the gate/wall isn’t necessary. They have access to some stealth and generally can get away from a fight when things go south.

Necromancer: Necros can be considered front or back line. They can be built tanky enough to move with the frontline (my server has a few necro commanders who do quite well in the thick of it). Their skills provide some enemy control and boon removal. I am the least experienced with this class, so I can’t say much more about it. Their offense can be really damaging to the enemy. Necros lack mobility, so if your side loses a fight you probably aren’t going to make it out alive.

Others These classes are not commonly called for in an organized group, but are not entirely useless either. The reason they are less popular is that all around, they have less group support skills than the other 5 classes. They are mostly used for small group or solo roaming, as they have great single target pressure.

Thief: In a zerg, they are basically there to pick off the enemy’s backline.

Ranger: Same as above, although their longbow can attack people/siege on enemy walls, as well as provide a water field for the zerg to heal.

Engineer: They are condi heavy with grenades, which I have found to be pretty effective at getting people off of walls and their healing turret provides a water field.

Warrior. That class does everything average or better and you can enjoy it virtually every aspect of the game.

I’d recommend you play a heavy first to get the hang of the game. Guardian and Warrior are pretty equal in terms of difficulty in my opinion. Guards may have less health, but they have plenty of blocks and invulnerability to make up for it. Front line tends to be easier to play at first because you’re naturally tanky and have others to support you.

Back line is a bit tougher. The back line tends to be where the majority of a zerg’s damage comes from, which means you will want to run as glassy as you feel comfortable doing. If you don’t want to play a heavy class, I’d recommend either Mesmer or Necro.

Mesmers are typically able to run whatever build they choose which offers a lot of flexibility for your play style, as long as you run the right utilities (veil, mass invis, occasionally portal). Mesmer’s are a bit more forgiving than necros because you have several ways to escape if you’re positioned poorly.

Necros are desired because they do remarkable aoe damage (primarily with wells), they can boon rip, chill, and blind entire groups. You’ll typically run full glass as a necro, which requires you to use your dodge rolls well, position yourself away from harm, and know when to bomb on the enemy group. Necros also do not have strong escape mechanisms, so you live and die by your positioning. This can be tricky for a new player to adapt to.

I would not suggest you play as an ele until you get the hang of the game. Eles probably have the toughest and most important job in zerg fights, and you will be the first target for the enemy zerg. Eles are in charge of providing water and fire fields for the melee train, control skills for the enemy zerg, and aoe damage. Most eles run glass builds, and cantrips for utilities, which are your ways to escape sticky situations.

I would also not suggest playing other classes for zerg fights. Rangers provide zero support for the melee and really only excel at single target dps. They can drop eles or focus the enemy driver, but you’ll be running a very glassy build with very few escapes. Thieves should only be used in zerg fights by skilled players, as they need to kill the enemy backline quickly and be able to avoid all damage, otherwise they’re useless. Engineers can be used in zergs I suppose, though I almost never see them. Grenades are a possible weapon choice, but retaliation will kill a nade engi within a few seconds. I’ve heard of using bomb kit and building tanky to run alongside the melee train, though I don’t know how effective this is.

Anyway, it’s up to you to decide how you want to play and what you’re most comfortable doing. I’d recommend you ask around on your server to find a guild that emphasizes fighting and get their opinions. Every driver is different in how they command, and what they expect from each class.

To date I have played to 80 and geared up 4 toons:

Necro:
Leveled it cuz I enjoy killing enemies, slowly, excruciatingly.
Pros:

• effective at both zerging (zerg diving) and roaming.
• you feel like a power house
  Cons
• Needs different gear sets to be good at each role
• Little to no escape ability. Hint: make your necro a norn for the elite snow leopard skill.

Mesmer:
Leveled it for the escape ability + range dps
Pros:

• good escape ability
• good zerg support
• lots of “OMG I can’t believe I just did that” when successfully hiding inside a heavily fortified enemy location and later portaling in your entire zerg to cap it.
  Cons:
• Thiefs are a pain

Guardian:
My server needs melee at times so…
Pros:

• Diving into 60 man enemy zergs with 20 of your closest melee buddies, erry day
• Your inventory fills up at the fastest rate with loots and loot bags.
  Cons
• Sometimes one feels like slacking and playing ranged toons

Thief:
Leveled it recently to learn how to counter it on my other toons.
Pros:

• Oh look, there’s a 50% life enemy retreating from their zerg, pew-pew, invisibility, stomp success!
• What ? you need such and such objective to be starved of supply ? I’m on it.
• What do you other classes go about with escape abilities ? I can get half a minute of 100% invisibility! catch me if you can
• Pure fun ^
  Cons:
• Most specs need to get into melee to do their damage, making for high risk high reward. Ranged toons are safe-er in this regard. Unless thief gets close to them …

Just pointing out that the Norn Elites (Bear and Snow Leopard) was unfortunately (though understandably) reduced in effectiveness a while back. So their rush/run ability is now much slower, and enemies can now catch up to it.

It was a sad sad day for my Norn Guardian, as I had finally found *1* elite I actually liked on the character! Back to the "We got no other elite worth taking so I’m taking this" elite again. Sigh, Renewed Focus.