Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I want to create a new character for WvW, but i cant decide which profession to pick and unfortunately i dont have time to test them all…

I would really appreciate it if u could point out for me the basic roles each profession can effectively fill in WvW (both in zerg vs zerg and in small scale fights) so as to know what to expect from each.

Thank you all for the help

It’s more about builds than classes. I only play a couple but I will tell u what I know.

Warriors are kinda the jack of all trades they can do most anything. There is a good hammer crowd control build, a good ranged damage build, and a decent condition build. Where warriors shine in my option are banners. If you spec into them you can have them up almost all the time and the can grant over 300 health regen per tick if you stack healing power. Pulse the banners buffs are also useful. Down side that build is it is very low damage with no Aoe which means not many loot bags and banners from 2 warriors don’t stack

Ele is a great wvw choice. A damage staff build is very esay to use and the large amount of aoe means lots of loot. You can also run dagger dagger which probably the best solo/small group build for wvw. There are variants of the build from bunker all the way to glass canon.

Thank you for the reply
I would never have thought that banners were so good…

I understand that its more about builds than classes, but dont some classes have the potential to perform better at some roles than othes?

You said that banners are where warriors shine…
Where do other classes shine? Any input would be appreciated…

I’ve played all of the classes to some small extent, but ive been around long enough to tell you what most of them can do in wvw

Heavy Armor Classes

Both of these classes can be built to be very good in wvw, and can perform basically any role you want them to. Their survivability due to high armor rating is an added bonus when speccing to stay alive, and can make glass cannon variations of them more viable than a glass cannon light/medium armor class.

Warrior was covered pretty well by valik, should also mention that their glass cannon build can be devastating when working in a group (by itself you’ll die with no defense)

Guardians are very popular in all areas as well. Glass cannon guards are less popular overall, but they can be made to work and can pull out some great numbers. However, most small roaming groups or zergs will want the guardian for their utility and boon stacking. Consecration abilities, like wall or reflection or the aoe stability one are amazing. A shout build will provide boons everywhere, and the uncrossable areas created by hammer and staff are extremely useful in locking down a chokepoint. Guardians are also one of the best classes against gank thieves (ill get to that later). Overall, a great choice in wvw, and many commanders are guardians simply due to this amazing group support coupled with survivability and solo viability.

Medium Armor Classes

Two out of the three of these classes are considered to be some of the most lacking by a lot of people in wvw, but in truth all three can fill any role you want to some extent. Glass cannon variations of these classes are going to rely on dodging primarily to avoid damage, and even the bunker variations will use dodges to supplement their other survival skills.

Engineers are a very tricky class to master, and have arguably one of the highest skill levels required for effective play. As such, many out there consider the engineer to be an underpowered class in wvw, but I can tell you that there are a lot of great engineers out there. Most engineer builds I’ve seen tend to focus on the use of kits, which are separate sets of abilities. Grenade Kit seems to go hand in hand with a glass cannon build, flamethrower or bomb seem to fit more tanky roles, and elixir gun has some great team support. Honestly I haven’t really studied the play style of any engineers closely, but there is a huge amount of variety there just waiting to be unlocked if you are willing to invest the time. All of these different roles are viable in wvw, from bombarding the top of a tower wall with grenades, to laying down some aoe heals and aoe condition removal during a zerg v zerg – people aren’t going to turn down a good engineer.

Rangers are considered to have some of the least effective group support of all the classes, and with it currently as my main I can tell you this is true to a degree. Our main form of group support, spirits, isn’t really effective whekittenerg has your team covered in aoe circles, so we’re basically left to providing water fields via our heal. Pets are also an issue in large fights, as theyll be dead to aoe 90% of the time.But if you waltz over to the ranger forums, you’ll see a lot of what ranger can really do in wvw. We’re able to solo cap camps extremely quickly with almost any build in 1-2 minutes, which is very fast, and if you have the time you can solo a tower lord with the right build. A lot of ranger is learning how to play effectively – we get a bad name from the randoms coming in with longbow and brown bear and having no idea. I’d say ranger can be effective in dps roles, and with good access to quickness we can be good revivers as well, but if you are looking for group support there are much better classes.

Thieves are a bit of a controversial point in wvw. Balancing in sPvP basically turned down a lot of the thief abilities to stop them insta-killing people, but as WvW is considered part of PvE this was left in. If you go on youtube there is a long video series of a guy’s montage of killing people in under 2 seconds, which is imo is pretty lame. Stealth has been a big problem with culling, but with it gone now, and the new change to stealth (1 extra second revealed) many of these glass cannon thieves are having trouble. I’m confident those good thieves will overcome the challenge, but hopefully this ganking playstyle diminishes slightly. In terms of group support, thieves have an aoe stealth (considered sub-par compared to mesmer as it basically creates an aoe target for enemies), the best access to smoke fields out of any class (good for providing blinds, stealths by leap finishers, and can really help out when hitting a large zerg), and stealth, which gains them the title of the best mid-fight revivers in wvw. Glass cannon thieves will have trouble surviving in large fights and probably end up off to the side picking off stragglers, but they can do a lot in behind enemy lines taking out reinforcements. Bunker thieves can be really annoying, and can be an effective build for a commander, allowing them to charge in leading the zerg, hit the enemies a bit, and stealth out if ever low.

Light Armor Classes

Despite the low armor, many builds for these classes are anything but squishy. They bring some of the best aoe support in the game, and all 3 are very well welcomed in all areas of wvw.

Elementalists are great in large/small groups as staff dps/support – they provide a lot of combo fields, great aoe heals, good control, and can get some high crits. D/D bunker elementalists are great in all situations, again with combo fields, the ability to easily combo off yourself, amazing survivability and great escapes. These guys are arguably the best bunkers if played well. Elementalists with points into the arcana tree can pick up some traits for amazing aoe boon stacking as well, which is always welcomed by groups.

Necromancers have a lot of dps, boon/condition removal, and some amazing condition abilities. They also have the same base health as a warrior, which means that with the right gear they can be pushing 30k health too. Minions are pretty subpar, and most WvW necros tend to leave these at home. In large group fights, and holding down chokepoints, well builds with staff can be amazing, with huge amounts of aoe abilities damaging and providing conditions to the enemy. The ability epidemic, which spreads conditions from one enemy to lots nearby, can work amazingly with a mesmer getting 25 confusion stacks on one guy, and giving it to others. Death shroud, the class mechanic, provides the necromancer with what is basically an extra health bar. The elite abilities are also useful, with plague form allowing you to run inside an enemy zerg and spread conditions almost at will (buffed hp, stability applied on activation). I don’t tend to see many necros out running solo, but i imagine to be effective in 1vX situations you would need something other than a staff build. All in all, a great zerg v zerg and objective defense class.

Mesmers are probably the most powerful classes in wvw at the moment. They bring a tonne of large fight group support, utility, and can wreck people in 1vX situations. Abilities like feedback ( a large reflective dome) and null field (condition removal on allies, maybe boon removal on enemies i cant remember) are great in large fights at creating safe zones for your allies, abilities like portal and timewarp can be used to get your teams golems right up to the enemy gate and melt it in seconds, and there are many builds, such kittenter and confusion focused ones, that can destroy enemies when you are solo. IMO confusion needs a nerf, as with the 10+ stacks a mesmer can reliably stack in a short time, you cant dodge, block or heal without taking 2-3k dmg (although there are arguments for why its ok, ill leave that for another thread). People will also love you for using your portals to teleport them through the jumping puzzles, as it bypasses campers and the ~5 mins they’d have to spend otherwise.

So, thats all the classes, i need to stop typing now – but you can see how all classes can perform all the roles in some way, just some are better at them than others. Ill summarize the stuff i said here in case people can’t be bothered reading that wall of text:

Warrior – hammer warriors have a lot of control and can wreck large groups, shout heals provide good team support, but no where near the best survival boon stacking.

Guardian – Amazing group support with boon stacking/consecrations, can do basically any role you want

Engineer – Can fill any role you want, good boon application and some really effective builds out there, but a pretty high skill cap to do well.

Ranger – Can do amazing in solo roaming with the right playstyle, arguably lacks real group support outside of dps.

Thief – Glass cannon builds are some of the best out there with instant-kills still possible, stealth is a great mechanic and group support is ok, but they lack real boon applications and have low base hp.

Elementalists – Great group support, some of the best combo fields in the game, DD build is a great bunker – cant really pick much weakness in the most popular builds, maybe build variety is a problem.

Necromancers – Amazing aoe condition application and can support the group well, some missing links with minions and some traits though, also idk how they work solo.

Mesmers – Great solo builds and group support, can’t really fault the class – movement speed is perhaps their worst feature.

Thank you so very much jamesigall!! Amazing post!!!

It was a happy surprise to see such a detailed post and i really appreciate that you took all this time to write this… Its a shame that it will soon get burried by other threads…

Why dont u post it as a guide in a thread of your own? i think it deserves a lot more than a lousy 200 views…

FYI, solo I find Necromancers excellent. If I see 3 enemy thieves, Im not kidding, I will fight them 1v3.

do u really have another option when playing necro?
they dont seem to have very good escapability… i always though it comes down to “kill or be killed”…