Guild Wars 2

Hey guys! I wonder if i shuld get commander for my Main (Thief) or staff ele, tank warrior ør guard, do Main or most suiting class

writing om ny Telephone, om awful at ut de

Doesn’t matter which proffesion.
If you take guard or other tank, you will be in front lines. If you take staff ele you will be behind tanks.
If you encounter weaker enemy, you stomp them. If you encounter stringer enemy, you all will die no matter which class you have.

Shouldn’t really matter. I’ve seen commanders using every single profession. Just use the one you’re most comfortable with and die the least with.

ty, but the problem is that we got none1200 wep at thief and require all your attentiom

it depends on the kind of players you have. if they are mostly pugs and aren’t in voice chat with you, they will tend to follow behind you and if you want them in front of you you’ll have to type a lot. in that case, something like a banner warrior or AH guardian may work well because you can be in front all the time.

if the players you want to lead are in voice chat with you, then a backline support class can work (elementalist is especially good because you can lay down fields as needed for blast finisher buffs or heals). if your playstyle is extremely mobile (e.g. little to no time to ever stop to stack might) then a mesmer may work well because you’ll be able to drop veil instantly, rather than having to ask for it.

-ken

Will thief work?

a thief with that spinning attack would probably work; the invulnerability while spinning is useful to ensure that you can get to where you want your group to go. we have a thief on our server with a commander tag and he’s very effective.

but I don’t think any kind of stealth would be particularly useful for a commander (not even shadow refuge), so if your preferred thief playstyle involves stealth I wouldn’t bother getting a tag.

-ken

Thats not invul i fear

“invulnerable” is probably the wrong word. how about “generally difficult to crowd control”? I’ve never played as a thief so I don’t know the details.

really what I’m trying to say is, a thief built for mobility and some tankiness could work well for a commander, but a thief built for stealth probably would not.

-ken

Ty, do what shuld i go for????

95% commanders on my server are thieves..

Also noted;

98% of them rarely gets killed.

So if u want that Ultimate Life Expectancy/Stealth

Go for Theif.

Try running around with a small group of people when a commander isn’t on and see how they work with you. that will give you a general idea. the majority of people in WvW are clueless and don’t know what to do without someone telling them what to do and will follow around the first person who seems to know what they’re doing. So try different classes when a commander isn’t on and just start ordering people around and see what works best.

Most popular is either Guardian or Warrior. Reason being, it’s easier to command (I think), when your group follows you into battle, rather than running ahead of you into a group.

Look, if you dont know what profession to choose yet, you havent run in zergs enough, followed existing commanders or have a guild to form a base.

So there is only one viable profession. Necromancer.

Dont have friends? Did you choose the wrong commander profession? Summon your own followers and light up that screen with name tags. The enemy will be like “Oh no theres 20 guys over there, fleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” and you’ll be like “HAHAHA I R TEH BEST COMMANDEER EVAR!!!”

Dawdler.8521:

Look, if you dont know what profession to choose yet, you havent run in zergs enough, followed existing commanders or have a guild to form a base.

So there is only one viable profession. Necromancer.

Dont have friends? Did you choose the wrong commander profession? Summon your own followers and light up that screen with name tags. The enemy will be like “Oh no theres 20 guys over there, fleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” and you’ll be like “HAHAHA I R TEH BEST COMMANDEER EVAR!!!”

That… does not work that way, lol.

But more on topic, any profession will work just fine. I would go for the toon you’re most survivable with of course, because your direction is what determines how the battle will go. If you’re dead… not so easy to command.

Guardians make the best commanders IMO.

go with a tanky toon… you don’t want to die in the middle of combat: it looks bad to the pugs. Also, nothing is worse than having to respawn as a commander — you’ll lose pug followers each time.

It doesn’t matter what profession really rather than go with the cliche choice just buy a tag with one you are most skilled with and have a solid mobile or tanky enough build to avoid getting taken down too easily, you just need the knowledge about wvw and each class and to put it to good use to lead the pugs.

In my opinion, guardians are probably the choice overall for commanding whether it be with a guild or pugs. Some guilds use one commander for melee and one for ranged, in which case a ranged commander should probably be a necromancer.

It doesn’t matter which profession you pick, as long as you have a good build for wvw on your class.

BUT I suggest a Guardians or Warriors for commander above all, necro’s and mesmer’s can be pretty good too. Those are the ones I think would be best suited but really, any is fine. Use a theif or elementalist if you enjoy playing those more, just don’t die LOL

I have commander on my Guardian and it works out pretty good, I don’t die often because I am pretty tanky overall and still put out decent damage with my Greatsword and a bit of CC with my Hammer.

I personaly would rather follow a Warrior and Guardian then anything else. The group support on those is great to be in control of as a commander. they can time the banner resses rather then waiting and hoping the banner res warrior is 1. paying attention and 2. even still alive and not chasing that stupid thief half way across the map. and if guardian you can be sure your push is better because YOU gave everyone stability.

Mesmer would be good to be able to use your own veil skill and mass invis but (and one of my guild commanders is a Mesmer and does very very well) I think a good mesmer as a reliable member of the party is better then actually using it as a commander.

Guardian and Warrior 1st. necro mesmer second. All the other classes are about equal after that. Except maybe Engi… poor poor Engies

I’ve got tag on my thief and warrior and its a lot easier to command effectively with a more tanky class. Thats not taking anything away from thief, you wont die that for sure but you can’t absorb damage with the rest of your group. This means that if you want your group to stick tight to you, alot of your mobility is sacraficed because you want to be with everyone else.

It certainly DOES matter what profession you are and is critical in how the zerg’s tactics will play out.

Guardian/warrior is going to be the best for lawnmower-type aggressive zergs which are probably the easiest to do (you’ll need to go FULL bunker build).

Ele will be good for more organized defensive/ranged play which can counter the above but probably harder to pull off with pugs.

Thief won’t be good for any type of zerging except overall strategy by showing people where to go on the map.

Ostra.3927:

Guardian and Warrior 1st. necro mesmer second. All the other classes are about equal after that. Except maybe Engi… poor poor Engies

What is wrong with engineer commanders?
I am one myself and I know couple of other engineer commanders on Desolation.

It is true that engineer requires more key presses than any other profession and that most our weapon sets are viability in zerg fights due retaliation, but engineer can be made quite sturdy and it has lots of single target CC and also some some area CC. And pretty nice amount of healing and condition removal for allies.

Engineer is not made to lead a melee train, but a collection of PuGs.

Big Tower.5423:

Hey guys! I wonder if i shuld get commander for my Main (Thief) or staff ele, tank warrior ør guard, do Main or most suiting class

writing om ny Telephone, om awful at ut de

Please don’t be the thief commander, I hate seeing thief commanders. Commanders are usually gonna be right up front so you should Ideally choose a tanky frontline profession like warrior/guardian. Warrior would probably be the easy choice since you’ll be fast and tanky, whereas gaurdians are slow if they don’t have allies constantly buffing them.

Seriously, don’t make your thief a commander, it’s the worst profession to be a commander. Necro is also a viable option though, after that I might suggest mesmer so you can direct the veils, and time warp yourself. Tanky glamour mesmer is something I would like to see in a commander, all that chaos armor!!!! XD

Given that as long as you’re good, any profession will do….

The absolute rule N° 1 for a commander is: don’t die.
Thus, tanky chars/builds are favored.

Guardian
Warrior

are by far the most numerous (and easy to use for commanding) commander professions. Full-Tank build, charge first in clashes and survive easily.

Close followers:

Elementalists
Necromancers

Ele cantrip/EA/CW build is very durable, totally viable as commander. Same for necro – DS and crazy hp pool makes it easily the last man standing – even if not so popular (at least on my server).

Mesmer

Is another good choice, manly because allows you to manage some of the mesmer’s utilities needed by your zerg by yourself (like, no need to call out a Veil: say “Go” and drop it by yourself). Tanky builds and various escape tools makes it a viable choice, but you’ll need to pay attention.

Engineer
Ranger

Do not offer particular “commander tools”. Tanky builds are viable and decent to play tho, thus it’s possible to use them.

Last…Thief

Is the least valid because there aren’t really tanky builds, cause most of them relies on stealth – which is not going to help you survive for real in a zerg clash.

All of this based on personal preference, experience and server trends.
And again: " as long as you’re good, any profession will do".

If you’re going to be commanding a large face smashing zerg at peak times then Warrior or Guardian is usually best. But if you’re playing in the early hours of the morning when server populations are lower and you’re commanding smaller groups, then anything is viable. All you need to do is play to your classes strengths (Thieves are great scouts) and integrate that into the usual Commander duties. Plenty of good Thief commanders on my server.

Watch videos of the hardcore pro guilds of WvW, and most will be Guardians, warriors, necro’s.

Am sure there are thief commanders leading random pugs but there are far better alternatives for serious hardcore guild runs. Am talking guilds that not only participate in WvW but are also heavily into guild vs guild battles.

Here is a pro guild doin their thing, recently retired RG from EU, mowing down a sea of red with far fewer numbers.

Notice the lead tag commander on teamspeak in the front lines directing location positioning and so forth. His followers are following his mark, no way he pulls this off as a thief, lol!

Deniara Devious.3948:

What is wrong with engineer commanders?
I am one myself and I know couple of other engineer commanders on Desolation.

It is true that engineer requires more key presses than any other profession and that most our weapon sets are viability in zerg fights due retaliation, but engineer can be made quite sturdy and it has lots of single target CC and also some some area CC. And pretty nice amount of healing and condition removal for allies.

Engineer is not made to lead a melee train, but a collection of PuGs.

That is just it. The engi takes skill to play. I have tried my best and its a very complicated class. it takes focus and dedication on swapping and cooldown management. All of this heavy need to be paying attention comes at sacrificing that attention somewhere else. overall tactics… giving orders etc.

The biggest problem is the fact that the engi takes all that skill and focus just to be on par with classes like warrior,necro,and guardian. (not saying these are noob classes now. i play and love 2 of the three hehe).

A same skill level commander on a warrior vs one on a engi? The warrior commander will be able to focus his attention on more things overall then the engi commander. A good commander on a engi or thief is great to see, but it makes things harder imo.

il go warrior then,

thanks, by the way!

Warrior is a fantastic choice, so many blast finishers on demand, huge health pool and high armor so you don’t have to worry about active defense as long as group heals and condition removal are available, lots of snares and area CC, with much more mobility than a guardian.

Ostra is right, if you are commanding you need to be able to focus on commanding rather than keeping your character alive.

Mesmer for portals.

The only problem is that my characther has captain in its name xDDD

Any tank/high survival build would work. Though I find every prof is common except engineer.

I would say guard. Nobody listens to a dead commander I found.

We have a few that aren’t guards, and it doesn’t inspire much confidence in people if they have to keep ressing their blue dorito who is supposed to be leading them to glory and loot bags, and such.

I`m a staff ele commander. It’s quite handy in that I can often take out the arrow carts, cannons or other pesky things that are threatening my group without having to rely on others to do it for me.

It’s also handy in terms of ground control. Being able to throw down those red circles is a great way to manipulate enemy troops and to prevent them going to certain places.

Having toughness as a main stat helps a lot. I run a condition build.

chronometria.3708:

I`m a staff ele commander. It’s quite handy in that I can often take out the arrow carts, cannons or other pesky things that are threatening my group without having to rely on others to do it for me.

It’s also handy in terms of ground control. Being able to throw down those red circles is a great way to manipulate enemy troops and to prevent them going to certain places.

Having toughness as a main stat helps a lot. I run a condition build.

I run staff ele also.

You are completely right about throwing down red circles, you can herd the enemy zerg around with them.

I run soldier’s armor, cleric’s jewelry. This is not the best DPS for players, but it is perfect from siege killing. (Remember, only power matters when killing siege, not crit, condition, or crit damage.) I can stay alive and kill the AC’s pinning down my zerg or the catas/rams attacking the keep I’m defending.

Having access to static field without having to call for it is HUGE. You just tell people to get ready, and you trigger the trap yourself.

I also run with soldier runes, so I am a massive source of swiftness for my zerg (Windborn Speed + Heal Skill + Static Field/Arcane Wave).

I might not be as good as a warrior or guardian at charging into an enemy zerg, but I do alright. Mist form is your friend. I rarely never die unless the entire zerg dies too.