Guild Wars 2

For about 6 months now, I’ve been almost exclusively solo roaming or running small havoc groups on my Thief and my BM bunker Ranger, and I’ve been wanting to get more into the zerging scene with a good class. Besides those two classes, I have:

• 37 Asura Elementalist
• 51 Human Warrior
• 22 Charr Guardian

Which one of these should I level to 80 next? I’m looking for the class that has a decent amount of tankiness, with good AoE capabilities for tagging and a fair amount of damage (though it’s not a main focus). I was thinking about running a D/D bunker or staff Elementalist, but I want to know what Guardians and Warriors have over Eles, and what Eles have over them – or if I should just make a new character entirely. Recreating for a Necro or Engi is not out of the question. Thanks in advance.

Anyone have any input?

all 3 classes can do everything you mentioned, it just depends on the builds.

which makes it really hard to say – you just have to see which one you like the feel of.

Honestly go thief. With a good build thieves are easily the tankiest class in group play cause of all the self heals they have. They also have the best AoE damage output with dagger storm and shortbow. I personally run 0/10/30/30/0 and have 2 healing power accessories, 2 p/t/crit 1 pvt accessories and the rest is zerker. With signet of malice you never die in group play cause of cluster bomb and dagger storm.

i’d say guardian.they are pretty strong in zergs atm.

necro: massive conditions, supports your team and chain fears people off cliffs.
thief:great for ganking or picking off straggelers
engi:do never unerestimate an engi..can be very tanky, great interrupts, and can deal some nice dmg
warrior:lots of cc,stuns, great dps and are great in zergs and definitely part of the meta

Necros are good in zergs. Wellmancer or condition build with Epidemic and Spite Signet.

Warrior or Guardian. Both are extremely good in groups, and can do pretty decent damage while never dying.

I know of a few different supertank builds for both, a few more dps oriented, and a few support/DPS as well. Personally, my guardian is support/DPS, with a crit based altruistic healing build with pure of voice shouts.

Considering the criterias are a “decent amount of tankiness, with good AoE capabilities for tagging and a fair amount of damage, and running with zergs,” the best two are guardian and necro.

Since most people know what guardians can do compared to necros, I’ll add a few comments about playing a necro. They’re amazing against a storms of ACs with death shroud as you run right through them. Definately go condition and plant marks with your staff. Necros can also really dictate the outcome of zerg battles small and large, and the get a lot of loot bags with all the marks planted everywhere.

One last thing about doing zergs in WvW, mobility is extremely important because a lot of it involves running so swiftness is a must. All professions have it but Guardian and Necro are 2 of the 3 best in this area.

Don’t go Ranger, Thief, or Engineer and you can’t go wrong in a zerg. Of the 3 you mentioned, I’d choose Warrior as they’re over the top imba currently. You’ll tag plenty with longbow fire field. You’ll tag plenty with melee swings.

Get 30k health, 3k armor, regen consumables and you’ll be unkillable.

Stop listening to all these lies.

Guardian. Equip staff. Press 1. Press F. Become zerg master.

Guardian.

I play both Ele and Guardian. Can’t speak for Warrior really.

Staff ele has the tagging ability but is fragile and boring to play if you like to get into the action.
Guardian is tanky, has good survivability in a zerg and lots of tagging ability. It usually gets first crack at the enemies, spearheading the attack.

Both ele and guardian are poor solo classes, expect to die a lot trying to join the main zerg.

I’ve always liked my hammer warrior.

Don’t listen to what that guy said about thief. In zerg fight your damage doesn’t matter at all. It’s your survive ability. If you can damage players and get them downed but you can’t survive you will just go down and rally them.

Right now the most useful classes in wvw organized zergs are hammer stun warriors, support guards, 1 or 2 mesmer for vails, necro and ele.

I’d suggest guardian here.

Equip with a staff and with hammer, get some PVT gear, and you can be very supportive to your party while still being able to take some damage (your raw dmg output is not that much, but you have a blast finisher (hammer) (combine with a fire field for might) and you have Empower on the staff, making you able to stack quite some might on yourself and your teammates..

Guardian
Ele
Thief
Warrior

Not Ranger, they are kitten bad, kitten garbage, kitten filth…unless you enjoy being subpar…

When i see

• 37 Asura Elementalist
• 51 Human Warrior
• 22 Charr Guardian

I read

• 22 Awesome Charr with Guardian’s useful skills

Where’s the dilema? lol

Guardian shouts are the tankiest/support heavy classes. Good ones will almost always be the last ones standing. Standing near one (or a dozen) will keep you alive longer as well.

Warriors with a hammer and Battle Standard dish out the damage and keep the zerg alive. The heavy armor and big HP pool help as well. Switch the build up a bit and the speed warrior is a very good skirmisher as well.

Eles are always a welcome addition due to their high AoE output.

Guards/Warriors are frontliners. CC heavy, buffs, condition clears, very very important.

Eles are generally midliners (D/D (or S/D)) or backliners (Staff). They deal a lot of damage, various forms of CC, very very important.

Play each one for a few days or a week. Level the one you have the most fun on.

In my experience, D/D ele is the craziest (most exciting, but hardest), anything front-line is fun and quite exciting, ele backline is super super important, but not everyone (including me) finds it hairy enough to be super fun. Some people absolutely love it though.

Warrior or guardian.

lol, so true. Can’t find any other class/weapon can beat Staff Guardian in zerg fight. Simplest but most efficient.

GuardianOMS.8067:

Stop listening to all these lies.

Guardian. Equip staff. Press 1. Press F. Become zerg master.

Meglobob.8620:

Not Ranger, they are kitten bad, kitten garbage, kitten filth…unless you enjoy being subpar…

Every post I see of you is where you are classifying ranger as subpar.. And you also always mention you have 8 classes so you sure know it..
Well, here is a pointer: Play on of your other 7 classes then and leave the ranger.. And the hateful comments about them..
L2P Kitten..

Contiguous.1345:

Guardian.

I play both Ele and Guardian. Can’t speak for Warrior really.

Staff ele has the tagging ability but is fragile and boring to play if you like to get into the action.
Guardian is tanky, has good survivability in a zerg and lots of tagging ability. It usually gets first crack at the enemies, spearheading the attack.

Both ele and guardian are poor solo classes, expect to die a lot trying to join the main zerg.

Can’t say anything for guardian, but imo ele is really good in 1v1. But you need to switch to d/d. Staff is pretty bad for solo roaming.

Tribio.8531:

Meglobob.8620:

Not Ranger, they are kitten bad, kitten garbage, kitten filth…unless you enjoy being subpar…

Every post I see of you is where you are classifying ranger as subpar.. And you also always mention you have 8 classes so you sure know it..
Well, here is a pointer: Play on of your other 7 classes then and leave the ranger.. And the hateful comments about them..
L2P Kitten..

Yes, its true, Rangers are subpar…just helping new players to avoid them…a lot of new players get ‘fooled’ by how easy they are to level with in open world PvE and think its a good class.

Then they reach 80 and try endgame stuff only to find out other classes are better then them and have a far easier time.

I ‘give up’ on my Ranger when they nerfed shortbows range by 25% and nerfed pets, as if they were not useless enough…

Looking forward to the next patch where they are going to nerf Rangers again, the spirit build, lol.

Seigfried.5938:

Contiguous.1345:

Guardian.

I play both Ele and Guardian. Can’t speak for Warrior really.

Staff ele has the tagging ability but is fragile and boring to play if you like to get into the action.
Guardian is tanky, has good survivability in a zerg and lots of tagging ability. It usually gets first crack at the enemies, spearheading the attack.

Both ele and guardian are poor solo classes, expect to die a lot trying to join the main zerg.

Can’t say anything for guardian, but imo ele is really good in 1v1. But you need to switch to d/d. Staff is pretty bad for solo roaming.

Absolutely correct – d/d is crazy fun and can pwn 1v1 but it’s poor in terms of tagging for zerg-loot, it’s single target really. Staff is great for loot but vulnerable to gankers.

Guardian has similar problems: sword/focus and greatsword is a good single target combo but for zergs you need to go staff (with hammer or gs).

It’s a pity we don’t have a functioning second set of gear swap for travelling/solo instead of those poxy ‘town clothes’

I’d suggest thief, warrior or necro. Don’t listen to people who say thief is bad in a zerg – strong AOE, spammable blast, high mobility and on-demand burst.

Beats me why people keep spamming about thieves being good in a zerg.

I’ve also got a thief (lvl80 – my first 80 in fact). It’s kitten useless in a zerg.

You’re on JQ, which is going to run with and against megablobs. The best profession with the highest survivability while only using skill 1 because of lag is staff Guardian.

Swamurabi.7890:

You’re on JQ, which is going to run with and against megablobs. The best profession with the highest survivability while only using skill 1 because of lag is staff Guardian.

Warriors have high skill lag survivability too, because they’ve buffed the passive regen from adrenal hp and healing signet.

Contiguous.1345:

Beats me why people keep spamming about thieves being good in a zerg.I’ve also got a thief (lvl80 – my first 80 in fact). It’s kitten useless in a zerg.

Mostly true. They can spam a blast finisher and have high DPS which is useful but doesn’t put them in the same rank as the heavy and light armor brethren in a zerg. Medium armor classes are just sub-par zerg-wise.

Meglobob.8620:

Yes, its true, Rangers are subpar…just helping new players to avoid them…a lot of new players get ‘fooled’ by how easy they are to level with in open world PvE and think its a good class. Then they reach 80 and try endgame stuff only to find out other classes are better then them and have a far easier time.

I love my Ranger but it is true. Aside from healing spring they are pretty pointless in a zerg. Not enough DPS or group synergy. They are still viable but not optimal in WvW or end game content. There are certain players with some builds that are really good but those same players in almost any other class would be better.

Anet needs to bring some Ranger love… maybe buff some of the Grandmaster traits which are completely lackluster or maybe a complete pet mechanism overhaul.