Guild Wars 2

Hello,

So I was thinking of making a new character for WvW and I was wondering what everyone thought of the classes in terms of how good they are in WvW.

Rate the classes you think are best suited for WvW/best at WvW in all around gameplay.

Mesmer>Thieves>Eles>Guards>Rangers>Warrior>Engineers>Necromancers

Necromancer as last? You clearly haven’t played one. They might have some issue’s, but they can be amazing nonetheless.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Necromancer as last? You clearly haven’t played one. They might have some issue’s, but they can be amazing nonetheless.

Perhaps. But I find that they are easily downed when focused/immobilized. I feel, compared to the other classes, they lack mobility and escapes. They have great offensive capabilities, don’t get me wrong. However, compared to the other classes and what they offer I feel necromancers are put into that place.

Rather put them in few tiers:

T1:
Guardian
Ele

T2:
Mesmer
Necro
Ranger
Warrior

T3:
Thief
Engi

Looking at scale of 15+ vs 15+

Rangers go last in any list.

Mesmer and thieves have certain niche uses. Not very sure about Engineers, don’t know them well enough and don’t see them often enough but I think they belong in this category as well. I’ve seen some great roaming done on Engi though.

Ele’s, Guardians and Warriors are the backbone of zergs and find some use in every other aspect as well so they are near the top. Necromancer is a very good class too but falls slightly below these three.

Hjulstad.6317:

Rather put them in few tiers:

T1:
Guardian
Ele

T2:
Mesmer
Necro
Ranger
Warrior

T3:
Thief
Engi

Looking at scale of 15+ vs 15+

This, except engineer in my opinion goes into T2. Played engineer most, so it can be really useful in group fights (blast finishers, superior CC, aoe that doesn’t require target). Thief can be really useful in group combat too, but most are traited for 1v1. Then again any profession can be traited for 1v1, thief would belong to T2 in that sense since it can be used such way. So, no T3 in my opinions (T1: Guard/Ele, T2: Rest).

Every class has different role.
Core: GD, War, Ele
Support: Mesmer
Damage: Engi, Necro
Scout: Thief, Ranger

Playing engi and necro when I go with zerg, I’ll stay a little bit away from the battle and find the right position to do damage or AoE on downed enemies (may be wait till someone come rez thier friend and I’ll drop AoE to kill both of them)

(I normally play Ele with my guild group, Engi when I want to farm loot bags following big zerg, Ranger when I want to go kill yaks and solo take the camps)

Deified.7520:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Necromancer as last? You clearly haven’t played one. They might have some issue’s, but they can be amazing nonetheless.

Perhaps. But I find that they are easily downed when focused/immobilized. I feel, compared to the other classes, they lack mobility and escapes. They have great offensive capabilities, don’t get me wrong. However, compared to the other classes and what they offer I feel necromancers are put into that place.

Lolol necro are one of the tankiest classes in game when played right my mitigation necro never dies necros death shroud also just make the
Harder to kill but honestly necros are the best wvw class imo tween fear and all their group mitigation id you know how to play

Simple

Elitists>Elementist>Mesmer>Warrior>Stealth Thief

Guardian>ele=mes>war>engi=necro=thief>ranger

Best,

Haltair, one of the twelve shadows

Elementalists/Guardians/Warriors at the top, Mesmers second and after that the rest are about the same (Ranger last though, and before the confusion nerf the Mesmer/Warrior spots would be swapped)

Best in WvW? For what? Let me list some of the options here: solo roaming, duo roaming dps, duo roaming tank, small group roaming – melee, range dps, healing… zerging: tagging enemies for lootbags, tagging keeps, soloing supply camps…. umm manning arrowcarts? Being akitten at citadel? How should I even answer that? For me guardian and elementalist is on all of those lists. Ranger does none of that well, unless you find 1v1’s at a safe place. Thief is pretty bad and anything from 10 up is mainly used as a moving blast finisher. Mesmers are interesting to play and are important for any group size but tag close to no enemies. Necros are really cool for debuffing and condition control. Engis are definately more for small scale and solo. Oh and warriors are zerglings but any group should have them for vigor, fury, swiftness and good cc.

Deified.7520:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Necromancer as last? You clearly haven’t played one. They might have some issue’s, but they can be amazing nonetheless.

Perhaps. But I find that they are easily downed when focused/immobilized. I feel, compared to the other classes, they lack mobility and escapes. They have great offensive capabilities, don’t get me wrong. However, compared to the other classes and what they offer I feel necromancers are put into that place.

Sorry, but you are wrong. The top open field guilds in the game run necros for a reason and they are most definitely not even remotely close to squishy. You should look a few of them up and ask for gear and spec advice.

For everything above say 10v10 :

Top tier: Necro, Guardian, Warrior, Ele

Middle tier: Mesmer, Thief

Lower tier: Ranger, Engi

The top tier classes I listed are the core for the most successful guilds.

Like I said mitigation necro closest I get to dieing is 70% health

KumaTazZ.8054:

Playing engi and necro when I go with zerg, I’ll stay a little bit away from the battle and find the right position to do damage or AoE on downed enemies (may be wait till someone come rez thier friend and I’ll drop AoE to kill both of them)

Just some constructive criticism…. That isn’t the best way to play a necro in a zerg if you want to win consistently.

Best way imo to necro ina zerg go jugger mancer run axe dagger and staff run enfeeble blood and vuln on deathshroud run in middle e zerg pop axe 3 enfeeble blood corrosive poison cloud and dagger cd spread to apply weakness blind and chill to. Three targets pop well lf darkness and explde 2 bone minions in it who dropth poisonfields after death then staff it up and repeat then plague form through the largest part of ezerg

It really depends on what you want to do and how you like to play. I didn’t like War and Thief at all. Never tried Necro.

I play a Mes, Ranger, Ele, Guard and Engi.

My favories are Ranger, Engi and Guard. I know there’s a lot of Ranger hate out there but Ranger is so fun to play. I mean who doesn’t like shooting bows and arrows? Throw in at trap build and you are helpful in a larger group. Do BM and you can take on anyone.

General zerging

S –
Guardian
Mesmer

A –
Necro
Ele
Warrior
Engi
Ranger

B-
Thief

Wall fights

S –
Ele
Necro
Warrior
Mesmer
Engi

A-

B -
Guardian
Thief
Ranger

Roaming

S-
Thief
Ranger

A-
Ele
Mesmer

B-
Engi
Guardian
Warrior
Necro

It does come back to play style and what you want to do in game. Do you want to be at the front of your group, near the back or be your own person and go solo?

Each class has things they are particularly good at. Thieves can move the quickest imho which makes them good supply grabbers. Mezzies can hide and provide portals into keeps or set-up portal bombs or supply short-cuts. Warriors and Necros can stomp/fear mobs off cliffs which is very funny. Rangers, Engi’s & Eles supplement arrow carts with their AOE and guardians keep groups alive and provide good reflective barriers.

I would say just try something new. You can always delete & try another if you decide it’s not for you.

Since there are different ways to enjoy WvW, I choose my rankings on how versatile and successful each class is.

Tier 1: Guardian, Mesmer, Elementalist

- All 3 classes excel at small and large group combat. The Mesmer, after the confusion nerf, doesn’t quite pack the same offensive punch in the large group content, but their utility still keeps them very in-demand.

Tier 2: Necro, Engineer, Warrior

- Necro and Warrior both excel at large group combat, and can do well in the smaller groups but usually require a better player to pull them off. Engineer seems to be the true hybrid class; they can do everything, just not as well as the other classes when they focus on their cornerstone role.

Tier 3: Ranger, Thief

- In small group play, both classes do very well, but I think their role in large group is not well established. Evidently, they are supposed to be the executioners, finishing off out-of-position or critical enemies quickly, but it seems that role either isn’t as successful or as necessary as originally thought.

Having said that, I don’t think any class is terrible in WvW. Certain classes lend themselves to being better suited for a particular play style, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be very effective and have fun playing any class.

I love how almost everyone thinks engis are useless just because we are rare…in 1 build I have now that I just switched to I can roam and be fairly tacky and also give helluva lotta damage/conditions in a Zerg/defending a tower…necro is my 2nd favorite

covenn.7165:

For everything above say 10v10 :

Top tier: Necro, Guardian, Warrior, Ele

Middle tier: Mesmer, Thief

Lower tier: Ranger, Engi

The top tier classes I listed are the core for the most successful guilds.

This post about sum it up for large scale fights.

I would do it more like this from my own personal experience;

T1 –
Guardian (Support, control, and redirecting of damage)
Warrior (Mass CC, Shouts)
Necro (De-buffing, Conditions)

T2 –
Ele (Water fields, support, wide range of negative and positive effects)
Engi (AoE condition damage, CC)

T2.5
Thief (Spam blast finisher, poison+weakness field)

T3 –
Mesmer (Unique opportunity skills)
Ranger (Water field)

Why? Let’s Start with my T3.

- Mesmers are a great addition to any group no doubt. I ranked them at T3 because most of their amazing skills you think of when you think Mesmer are very opportunistic utility skills. No group should not have one but that doesn’t mean they should have many.

- Rangers are also a great group addition and boast one of the best water fields in the game which can be traited to also pulse vigor. Apart from that their weapon skills as well as their utilities really drop the ball when it comes to larger group play and many traits are useless. Traps are helpful but take up valuable utility slots and are much less useful if not traited for while still not being spam-able enough to make up for sub-par weapon and pet abilities. Moa’s buffs and healing however is very often overlooked. Like the Mesmer, good, but in moderation.

T2.5

- Thieves have the best weakness application (on poison trait) and the ability to spam a blast finisher when needed which are two things you don’t want to be without. Both are dependent on initiative and thus management and wise skill usage is required but when done correctly can be an amazing team bonus. Lack of other weapons and utilities to use in large scale fights however limit them quite drastically. Smoke Screen should not be overlooked. Top of the line solo scouts and camp gankers. As information gathering is also critical while being great in parties but bringing too many quickly reduces the effectiveness of the one which is why it has a special ratting.

T2

- Engineers have some great skills for party play including an AoE heals, bombs, grenades, and control. That one sentence pretty much sums up why they are such a great addition to any group. Having a few in a party who are familiar with the class and it’s tricks is always welcome.

- Elementalists are around for a large number of reasons ranging from lightning fields to water fields to fire fields and finally some snares. Having a few spamming combo fields and snares is always welcome.

T1

All of the classes in T1 are there for very obvious reasons and having many in a larger team group only increases their overall effectiveness. No group should be without many of each.

Every class has something great it can add to the party. That is without question.

If you know the class and know your roll in the group, any class works well in wvw.

I wonder if many who posted their ratings talk from their experience playing those classes or base their ranking on WvW/team demographics and what they see on how well other players do with these classes.

That would make two pretty different rank lists IMO.

For example, after playing a ranger on WvW I can say that on a personal level I’d compare dynamics and survivability (while running in a raid) being close, if not almost on par, to guardian’s. On team synergy and value for the team level rangers have all kinds of group buffs and sickest water field in the game which also removes conditions.

Of course it depends on how you go about setting up your character. I was running melee ranger. But would change to range weapon if situation dictated that.

I don’t think you can really rate all the classes because of all the variables like group make up, size of the group, builds, size of your enemy.

If I had to generalize it, I would say:
Guardian, Nerco, warrior would be the bulk of your group.

Ele, mesmer, Ranger would be secondary. Equally as important but not as many numbers to be effective.

Thief, engi, engi I don’t know enough about so they could be in the group above. Thief has some things that are nice for zergs like the on demand blast finisher but there overall defense makes it hard for a thief to be effective in the long run.

Personally any strong zerg will have a good amount of all classes to take advantage of everything the game has to offer.

After the S&R nerf, rangers went from being somewhat useful to somewhat a hindrance. i play a ranger for the most part, i love it. But lets face it, it is an ego class. You play it cuz you can tag more people then anyone else (SB with piercing arrows/LB Barrage/traps… 5 sec later and you got the entire enemy zerg tagged, 5 seconds after that, again, your running for your life)

Rangers are a backbone of the zerg, due to ONE thing. they have undeniably the most OP waterfield ingame. The size, duration and healing power it grants dwarfs any other class. They can also lay down a decently sized firefield. So for blast-finisher support they are great. Mind you, not AS great as Guardians, which is THE most useful class in WvW.

But that in mind, my list would look like this:
1 – Guardian
2 – Ele
3 – Warrior
4 – Ranger (if played right, which most rangers aren’t doing)
5 – Necro
6 – mesmer (they got portals and invis, that’s it)
7 – engi
8 – thief (too much ego class)

If we’re talking Group vs Group then this is my list:

Best: Warrior, Guardian, Necro
Decent: Elementalist, Engineer
Needed for Utility: Mesmer
Leave them at home: Thief, Ranger

Rangers are broken right now for group PVP. There is virtually no reason I’d take a ranger over an Ele or a Necro… ever. I’m someone who would love to see Rangers be as useful as other classes. Simple fact of the matter is that they are not. They do have some useful utility, however I’m going to take a Necro or Ele every time over a Ranger.

Thieves are useful in that they make fantastic scouts… so if scouting is your thing, make a thief. We love our scout thieves in the guild.

Prysin.8542:

After the S&R nerf, rangers went from being somewhat useful to somewhat a hindrance. i play a ranger for the most part, i love it. But lets face it, it is an ego class. You play it cuz you can tag more people then anyone else (SB with piercing arrows/LB Barrage/traps… 5 sec later and you got the entire enemy zerg tagged, 5 seconds after that, again, your running for your life)

Rangers are a backbone of the zerg, due to ONE thing. they have undeniably the most OP waterfield ingame. The size, duration and healing power it grants dwarfs any other class. They can also lay down a decently sized firefield. So for blast-finisher support they are great. Mind you, not AS great as Guardians, which is THE most useful class in WvW.

But that in mind, my list would look like this:
1 – Guardian
2 – Ele
3 – Warrior
4 – Ranger (if played right, which most rangers aren’t doing)
5 – Necro
6 – mesmer (they got portals and invis, that’s it)
7 – engi
8 – thief (too much ego class)

I wouldn’t rate rangers that highly; the duration mostly matters in healing people on flame rams or when you have to stand in a circle. During other battles, the zerg is normally constantly moving. On restacks in the midst of battle, in my experience, the zerg runs through a blast finishers quickly and are back on the move. Using it in the middle of the fight (not during a restack) might be better but it’s hard to tell how effective it is since that means you are up front where it’ll matter the most and where you can’t see anything due to effects and circles everywhere. I find the ranger AoE immobilizes and the like far more clutch in helping to strip boons by keeping them in null fields/wells.

In any case, I agree mostly with Castaliea.3156 though I’d rate mesmers a bit higher. Feedback/null fields/veil are always useful despite your clones/phantasms not surviving long enough to even shatter due to AoE. I’d view portals the same way if I knew where they went half of the time.

Once/if they buff weakness, thieves might be bumped up for zerg fights too even if they are specced for roaming.

Great Players > Good Players > Average Players > Bad Players > Terrible Players

That’s my list.

Prysin.8542:

6 – mesmer (they got portals and invis, that’s it)

Never heard of an ethereal field, have you? Or boon sharing, for those unselfish mesmers.

do necro marks trigger on downed players yet? i remember they didn’t before but i haven’t played my necro in a few months

meep.2601:

do necro marks trigger on downed players yet? i remember they didn’t before but i haven’t played my necro in a few months

Nope. Still need another enemy player to run into it to trigger.

You really need to separate the classes based on what their needs are..

Rangers for example are fairly decent roamers, They can 1v1 most classes and do alright with that..

They absolutely blow for zerging though, and I see a lot of people don’t understand zerging in this game either.

Let me clear this up for you, the absolute best class in this game to zerg on is the Thief….Some of you are confused right now because some fools think Zerging is about Group utility…This is wrong..

Zerging Comes down to really two things..

1. How many people have vs the enemy
2. If you’re Pushing or Retreating, The side that pushes on the other side is generally the one that wins 9/10 in Zerg Warfare…. Just like the side with more people is generally the side that is pushing.

Now with that said…Why is the thief the best Zerging Class in the game..Simply put…Zerging has nothing to do with how your utility is, It has everything to do with how many people you can hit.

As a Thief, you can fire Choking Gas over and over again all over a zerg fight..This is Poison Combo Field that last a couple seconds..its fairly wide radius, and will hit lots of people..You can do this all day long.. ..This means you will hit the most amount of people, More then even a Necro can…

You also have the ability to just run away and live pretty much every time….Meaning you’re not running back when your zerg eventually does die.

So anyone who tells you thieves are bad at zerging, clearly don’t understand how zerging is in this game..They think it comes down to Skill, when it really doesn’t…

The only time you will remotely get a small amount of “skill” is maybe in a Guild vs Guild fight, but even then..Those fights aren’t really skill…But a Cluster kitten of AOE from probably nothing but Warriors/Guardians/Ele’s with a Necro or two..

But even those groups will get rolled over by bigger numbers pushing on them.

I will tell you this, everyone will put the class they love higher than it actually is, then you must add to this the fact that you must keep in mind some classes perform better at certain roles. Example:

My BM Ranger kitten s anything and anyone who gets in his way when roaming around, yet soloing camps as him is harder for me than it is with my warrior and against a zerg my pet dies so my damage goes to hell bla bla bla. If I got a long bow ranger however, against a zerg I tag hella lots of people and do quite a lot of damage while my pet penalty “Since pet WILL die” is smaller.

However I would put it this way:

Roaming: Thief > Warrior “IF played correctly” > D/D Elementalist/BM damger > Mesmer/Guardian > The rest.

Zerg play: Support Guardian/Necros/Hammer warriors > Elementalist/mesmers > Thief and Engineers.

Camp Soloing: Whatever you enjoy really.

Caffynated.5713:

General zerging, Wall fights, Roaming

I agree with almost all of this.

osif.8673:

Great Players > Good Players > Average Players > Bad Players > Terrible Players. That’s my list.

This thread is pretty funny.

T1
Ele
Guardian

T2
Necro
Mesmer
Warrior
Engi

T3
Thief

T4
Ranger

Rangers just seem to not bring much to a teamfight, and what they do provide, other classes can do better. And Thieves absolutely shine for everything else besides zerg vs zerg.

My list is

For solo play

osif.8673:

Great Players > Good Players > Average Players > Bad Players > Terrible Players.

For group play (Zerg or Havoc)
People on Voice Chat > People who are not on Voice chat

For just zerging
People who donate siege = Scouts who reports accurate information = people who follow commanders instructions > people who mindlessly follow a blue triangle.

Also for zerging
Bunker builds >= Hybrid Builds >> Glass cannon build (you are no use to a team if you are dead and providing a free rally)

If i have to pick professions

Ranger (my main) > Ele (my first alt) > Guard (Currently leveling) > the classes i haven’t played yet

dunnberry.2964:

I love how almost everyone thinks engis are useless just because we are rare…in 1 build I have now that I just switched to I can roam and be fairly tacky and also give helluva lotta damage/conditions in a Zerg/defending a tower…necro is my 2nd favorite

Shhh, quit telling people were awesome, its why we get nerfed so much.

Drat I forgot bones your right! Umm ya anet and everyone engis are terribly useless in everything…no need to look here or nothing(foiled again)

I’d go

A:
Guardian
Elementalist
B:
Mesmer
Warrior
Engineer
Necromancer
Ranger
C:
Thief

Bones.5762:

dunnberry.2964:

I love how almost everyone thinks engis are useless just because we are rare…in 1 build I have now that I just switched to I can roam and be fairly tacky and also give helluva lotta damage/conditions in a Zerg/defending a tower…necro is my 2nd favorite

Shhh, quit telling people were awesome, its why we get nerfed so much.

Everybody knows Engi is very powerful in a standup fight. They just lack the burst mobility to roam quickly around the map, catch runners, or get away from a zerg.

Piteous.4165:

If you know the class and know your roll in the group, any class works well in wvw.

This. While some classes have an easier time than others at certain roles, any class can do anything effectively. I solo roam, havoc squad, and zerg on my Guardian, Warrior, and Ranger all the time and I almost never had a problem doing any of those things.

Following Hjulstad.6317’s tiers i’d put engineer in t2 for ~20v20 (which on my server we call zerg v zerg) mostly because of its amount of blast finishers, knockbacks, pulls, snares that make him able to manipulate the battlefield at will. I think that grenades come close to this through area denial, but i’m not playing them so i don’t know.

Anyway, for me it’s:

1. guardian, necromancer, elementalist
2. warrior, engineer, mesmer
3. thief, ranger

Everything>ranger. It’s almost like every single ranger has absolutely no idea how to play the class. It’s underpowered anyway but even so, many many players need to l2p it. No you can’t tank a Zerg with the stupid pet, and no you can’t repeatedly fire barrage at guardians without auto gimping yourself.

Rangers and warriors are noob magnets but warriors are sufficiently useful and easy to use for this not to matter.

DanyK.3842:

Thief is pretty bad and anything from 10 up is mainly used as a moving blast finisher.

After our eles left WvW, one of our thieves yesterday was our only healer, stealing from rangers and dropping/blasting the waterfield. Just a L2P issue: every profession can provide some utility with the right setup and player skill

But I concur with you that the OP question is misleading: you can rate professions for specific roles, not for “all around”.

tsubus.8761:

T3:
Warrior
Engineer
Ranger

Not to be rude, but this is wrong. Warriors are nearly a requirement to have a high level of success. Rangers and engineers are not.

In my zerg busting roaming group (usually 5 or less players) the last thing I want are warriors and rangers. then necros.
not that I discriminate and don’t let those in, but it’s usually a weak spot in the group.

everything else is fine as long as they are decent players and don’t run full berserker builds.

Large scale zerg fights 30+ against skilled guild zergs not pugs:
1. Guardian
2. Necro
3. Ele
4. Warrior
5. Mesmer
6. Thief
7. Engi
8. Ranger

All about that sustain, stability, AOE pressure(You want retal friendly aoe not small hits).