Guild Wars 2

Suppose you only had 5 character slots and had to limit yourself to playing 5 professions.

What do you think are the top 5 useful professions in WvW?

My top 5 in no particular order
-Elementalist: Can be squishy but also very deadly in zerg fights.
-Mesmer: for portals and time warps, also helps a bit in zerg fights but not as good as ele
-Guardian: For group buffs, healing swiftness, etc
-Warrior: To lead the charge and for Warbanners ^^

Last spot in top 5 hard to say but it’s between necro, engineer, and thief.
I personally would prefer the versatile engineer to round out top 5 but necro is also very good in zerg fights and thief is very good partner with Mesmer to ninja keeps and being sneaky. ^^

Bottom spot sorry to say is for ranger. Entangle is pretty good but only affects so many targets. Ranger still ok but not as indispensable as the others..

Ele above Necro? HA! Strong or weak, skilled or kittened players, it wont change the fact that Eles are in the exact same spot that Mesmers are – you dont want more than a few for specific tasks. Necros on the other hand is the backbone of AoE damage.

The top 3 (in specific order) is:
- Guardian
- Warrior
- Necro

Ele and Mesmer are the classes that the commander will always yell for and blaim when he fail yet still doesnt even care if the group have any.

Engie and Thief, nobody care what they do as long as they arent rallybots.

Rangers are the ones that’s been taken pity over by the local wildlife.

Rangers are mid tier in terms of utility and damage vs tankyness. Thief, mesmer and ele end up in the same spot. you want a few to do specific tasks (stealth rez/stomp, portals, veils, statics etc…)

Engi…. engi is fine until the enemy brings retal, then engi is dead.

1. Warrior
2. Warrior
3. Warrior

Necro >Warrior

Contrary to popular belief, if you have two rangers in your zerg that are coordinating their healing springs, you have a 100% uptime water field for condi removal and heal blasting. It’s another class that can be beneficial if played right and there’s not an excess of them.

uhhh….. ranger
(fire field, water feild, immobilize"5", hitting"5" around 11k every ’bout 11 seconds, might, quick stealth, pet aoe skill! spirit of nature ( 320 heal/s “5,” revive up to “6” people, “3 everyone 30 seconds + heals”) all w/ 3k+ armor 3k+ attack 25k+hp (clearly not a zerker meta build)

The ones interrupting your oh so powerful eles/mesmers, shutting down your back line squishies in fights before they get their most aoe spells out, spiking guardians dead in less than 3 seconds, saving all your down friends with knock back/daze stun

very unlikely in 2:1 ratio in fights of any scale of this kind of ranger against meta p,v,t warrior to lose, so tell me again how warriors are so useful? lol

Not to mention that a couple of well timed barrages can slow and string out a blob. They’re also great for chasing down stragglers after a blobfight, running away from a longbow ranger is a bad idea. Also good for scouting and capping camps.

Hiding a few necros in a blob when you charge into another blob and blasting out their life transfers does a bucket load of damage

I have a geared ele and necro. The necros brings in more bags due to the ticks from conditions. My ele is good for spiking dmg; those that are in a downed state. If it was a small group vs another. I’d be on my ele all the time because necro is weaker (in comparison to ele) in smaller organized parties in WvW.

I guess it depends on whether you are asking about zerging, roaming, or just general overall WvW. Undoubtedly, ranger and engineer wouldn’t make top 5. As for the rest, it’s very hard to say which of the remaining 5 would be the 6th best and not make the list.

The element of surprise helps a lot. As a ranger I’ve had numerous run ins with other roamers who, thinking that a longbow ranger must be an easy target, engage me. After pelting them with arrows to soften em up a bit, switch to sword axe and knock em down then pull em in with path of scars, follow up with some smack down with whirling defense. Usually ends them right there.

1. Guardian
2. Warrior
3. Necromancer
4. Elementalist

5. Mesmer
6. Thief
7. Ranger
8. Engineer

I split this into top and bottom four because it makes more sense to me that way. The top four all play key roles in an organized WvW group. I’m putting Guardian and Warrior up front only because my experience says a larger meat-shield up front is more beneficial than the DPS power from the squishies back.

In some ways a Necromancer can play somewhat between front and back with survivability, utility and DPS. They have some extremely useful skills like Well of Corruption, Plague Form, Epidemic, and can suck up the downed state enemies with Death Shroud. They are very useful, but I ranked them slightly lower than Guardian and Warrior only because you don’t need as many to be successful.

All of this is assuming you are running in a group. If you are roaming or doing small group stuff I’d change the list around quite a bit.

Remember the point of this thread… It is the most useful professions. The single most important profession is…. wait for it…. eles. Without their water fields, nothing else matters. You don’t need many in your zerg, but if you have none, your zerg won’t last for long. Anyway, the rankings.

1. Ele
2. Guardian
3. Warrior
4. Necro
5. Mesmer

Which leaves the following as the bottom classes: thief, ranger, engi.

Stone.6751:

1. Guardian
2. Warrior
3. Necromancer
4. Elementalist

5. Mesmer
6. Thief
7. Ranger
8. Engineer

I split this into top and bottom four because it makes more sense to me that way. The top four all play key roles in an organized WvW group. I’m putting Guardian and Warrior up front only because my experience says a larger meat-shield up front is more beneficial than the DPS power from the squishies back.

In some ways a Necromancer can play somewhat between front and back with survivability, utility and DPS. They have some extremely useful skills like Well of Corruption, Plague Form, Epidemic, and can suck up the downed state enemies with Death Shroud. They are very useful, but I ranked them slightly lower than Guardian and Warrior only because you don’t need as many to be successful.

All of this is assuming you are running in a group. If you are roaming or doing small group stuff I’d change the list around quite a bit.

Nade spam automatically makes the engineer better than the Ranger in zerg fights. Ranger is easily the #8 for zergs by a large margin.

Forgot to mention elementalist is great for destroying siege which is another reason why I think it is more useful than necro in WvW.

All righty, I’ll give it a try:

1. Warrior
2. Elementalist
3. Guardian
4. Mesmer
5. Thief
6. Necromancer
7. Ranger
8. Engineer

Warrior is good because of its ability to tank ridiculous damage. It can also kill everything in an upgraded supply camp in 7 seconds from first hit to last and 37 seconds (is my record at least) for fully upgraded. It’s also a terrific commanding profession, great for rushing to save stuff and the best by far for holding rings. All in all has the best mobility.

Elementalist is number 2 because of potential but in actuality should probably be 3 or even 4 due to the fact that most ele’s do not have a clue how to AoE siege which is something that ele is best at. It’s meteor shower and dragon’s tooth can take out arrowcarts and other siege in places that no other profession can hit. It also has nice support for zerg v zerg and getting a zerker meteor shower on an enemy zerg oh man

Guardian is a close 3rd because of its great heals and support. Most people would probably put it higher.

Mesmer is 4 because of its great roaming with a PU build as well as ports for golems/hiding and veil for zerg busting and the pull for trying to pull people off walls.

Thief is just barely ahead of necromancer, mostly because of its roaming ability. It’s great for taking supply camps, scouting, and killing yaks repeatedly in ebg.

Necromancer has great aoe damage and is terrific in zerg v zerg. It unfortunately lacks mobility and cannot escape or chase very well.

Ranger is pretty poor overall and doesn’t really have much of anything that really separates it apart from the other professions. The healing field and barrage can be nice in zerg v zerg and ranger isn’t too bad of a roaming class either.

Engineer I put just barely behind ranger due to the fact that it also doesn’t really have anything in particular that makes it stand out or mandatory. It has one 1500 range grenade though it’s not a game changer. The condition damage isn’t bad, though.

1. Guardian
2. Elementalist
3. Warrior
4. Necromancer

5. Mesmer

6. Thief
7. Engineer
8. Ranger

Good elementalists will decide the wave of battle. Strong AoE skills will force enemy zergs to move one way or another (or die to your damage). Strong CC will lock them down for spike damage. Constant waterfield rotation keeps the zerg alive. The only reason I put Guardian higher is due to their high sustain, support and healing.

I want to put Mesmer higher than Necro, but Necro does so much more damage in zergs than Mesmers, not to mention Spectral Wall is an amazing utility skill and in my opinion, better than Temporal Curtain (and they’re both Etheral fields).

Warrior is only up there for 2 skills. Earthshaker and Battle Standard. They have a nice Blast Finisher rotation as well, though a SB Thief or Hammer Guardian can take that role just as well, if not better.

The bottom 4 on my list are better suited to roaming. The top 4 better suited to zerging.

Zerg warfare
~ Elementalist
~ Guardian
~ Necromancer
~ Warrior
~ Mesmer

- Thief
- Engineer
- Ranger

> Elementalist’s provide tons of support and backline damage. Although if spec’d for DPS they’re about as brittle as antique china a single Meteor Shower can demolish the enemies frontline.
> Guardians, like the Elementalist’s, provide tons of support. They’re great for frontlining, commanding and if played well can be a real challenge to bring down. Without the support of a Guardian or an Elementalist, a fairly large group can crumble pretty fast.
> Conditions are valuble in a player versus player environment. They can tick long after attacks have been cast and can be easily spread from person to person. Whether spec’d for power, condition damage or straight up facetanking a Necromancer can fill any of these roles quite well. In zerg combat however, spreading conditions or frontlining with a Plague form blind spam can be a massive help for mitigating damage and putting the enemy on the defensive.
> Warriors have the best of all worlds. Damage, sustain, utility and speed. Best suited for a frontline scenario the Warrior is generally the primary source of damage.
> Although their utility isn’t always obvious, Veils, Portal’s and Time Warps can hugely improve a groups ability to sneak up on their enemies, bomb them with massive numbers or speed up their damage by a significant amount. It may be a matter of time and place but that place always has the potential to mean the time.
> Some might say that Thieves can be a big help in zergs and I nod to those who play them well. Unfortunately picking off backliners isn’t as easy as it sounds and it’s rare a Thief provides much utility to a zerg battle. Still, they have their potential and if used properly they can definitely be an asset.
> The Engineer has a lot of potential but is met with the unfortunate foe known as Retaliation. Although they can provide a good deal of backline damage, it is quickly thrown back and the role of DPS is already filled by many other professions. Thus rendering the Engineer without much of a place.
> Ranger’s, if played properly, can be incredible for picking off the downed or those trying to escape. Unfortunately, Spirits and pets die almost immediately and Elementalists and Guardians provide more support than their Healing Spring can provide. Still, don’t underestimate the sniper. Without the downed being finished you would have a lot more rallies going on.

Havoc
~ Guardian
~ Warrior
~ Elementalist
~ Ranger
~ Mesmer

- Thief
- Necromancer
- Engineer

Duo’s
Engineer & Engineer
Mesmer & Thief
Necromancer & Warrior

Engi + Engi, especially if talented are a kitten scary pair to cross paths with. Conditions and/or heavy direct damage everywhere and lots of sustain. Mesmer and Thief, with all their stealth and mind games make them a very scary pair as well. Between losing your targets constantly and being hit for massive numbers I’d argue just the 2 could wreck a group of 6. Necromancer and Warrior sounds a strange pair but with their sustain and ability to stand their ground to the last minute they’re a pair that won’t soon be running.

Solo
~ Thief
~ Mesmer
~ Ranger
~ Warrior
~ Engineer

- Necromancer
- Guardian
- Elementalist

Thief, as we all know was made for solo roaming. Mesmer’s are excellent duelists and can hold their own against uneven numbers about as well as a Thief. A Ranger, assuming well played, can be a very dangerous opponent. They are also arguably the fastest camp flippers. Warriors are fast, high damage, good survivability and can adapt to just about any situation. Engineers are a wild card. Either they’re terrible or can solo a group of 5. Necromancer’s are slow, but whether they’re power, tank or condition they can bring people down pretty fast. Guardians are meant for group warfare, it’s about as simple as that. Elementalists can be very quick and either do insane damage or have great survivability but which ever they choose it usually won’t play out in their favor when solo.

I’ve leveled one of each profession to 80, with the exception of Elementalist, and can say from experience I believe these to be the best at what they are listed. Just an opinion, as any profession can be effective if played properly.
I also solo roam as a Necromancer more than anything and although I’m a condition build I can honestly say that Guardian and Ele roamers are a) few and far between and b) usually some of the easiest targets.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I’ve leveled one of each profession to 80, with the exception of Elementalist, and can say from experience I believe these to be the best at what they are listed. Just an opinion, as any profession can be effective if played properly.
I also solo roam as a Necromancer more than anything and although I’m a condition build I can honestly say that Guardian and Ele roamers are a) few and far between and b) usually some of the easiest targets.

I can see that a lot of people underestimate me when I’m roaming on my ele. Just keep in mind that a skilled D/D ele will collect your loot bag. So many thief, warrior, engi and necro bags I have collected… Still working on a good rotation to take on mesmers with though.

Also, I see a lot of guardian roamers in T1. Guardians specced for DPS are just stupid OP. Naturally high sustain and armor, lots of condi removal, blind spam, CC and stability. The only thing they lack is mobility.

Reverence.6915:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I’ve leveled one of each profession to 80, with the exception of Elementalist, and can say from experience I believe these to be the best at what they are listed. Just an opinion, as any profession can be effective if played properly.
I also solo roam as a Necromancer more than anything and although I’m a condition build I can honestly say that Guardian and Ele roamers are a) few and far between and b) usually some of the easiest targets.

I can see that a lot of people underestimate me when I’m roaming on my ele. Just keep in mind that a skilled D/D ele will collect your loot bag. So many thief, warrior, engi and necro bags I have collected… Still working on a good rotation to take on mesmers with though.

Also, I see a lot of guardian roamers in T1. Guardians specced for DPS are just stupid OP. Naturally high sustain and armor, lots of condi removal, blind spam, CC and stability. The only thing they lack is mobility.

I understand that. Like I’ve said, any profession can be effective if played properly. I’m going by averages not individuals. I’ve come across a few very good Ele’s but 95% of the time they melt before they have time to react. They’re a powerful profession but I just don’t consider them to be great for roaming. Still, I roam as a Necromancer which most people consider terrible for said role. So, I obviously can’t say that there’s no such thing as a solo Ele that could wreck me.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Reverence.6915:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I’ve leveled one of each profession to 80, with the exception of Elementalist, and can say from experience I believe these to be the best at what they are listed. Just an opinion, as any profession can be effective if played properly.
I also solo roam as a Necromancer more than anything and although I’m a condition build I can honestly say that Guardian and Ele roamers are a) few and far between and b) usually some of the easiest targets.

I can see that a lot of people underestimate me when I’m roaming on my ele. Just keep in mind that a skilled D/D ele will collect your loot bag. So many thief, warrior, engi and necro bags I have collected… Still working on a good rotation to take on mesmers with though.

Also, I see a lot of guardian roamers in T1. Guardians specced for DPS are just stupid OP. Naturally high sustain and armor, lots of condi removal, blind spam, CC and stability. The only thing they lack is mobility.

I understand that. Like I’ve said, any profession can be effective if played properly. I’m going by averages not individuals. I’ve come across a few very good Ele’s but 95% of the time they melt before they have time to react. They’re a powerful profession but I just don’t consider them to be great for roaming. Still, I roam as a Necromancer which most people consider terrible for said role. So, I obviously can’t say that there’s no such thing as a solo Ele that could wreck me.

There’s 2 condi build necros in my guild that can 1v2 or even 1v3 people due to how much sustain necro has with death shroud. I find necros to rank right under Mesmer and Thief in terms of roaming ability.