What Do You Think is Anet's most Favourite Class?

[Warlyx.6732]

ele 1 no doubt , 2nd guardian

 

last btw Rev and Necro

[Bish.8627]

As of this patch mesmer. Coming from a purely wvw perspective, and mostly small scale. But looking at the forums it does seem everyone was quick to get on the spellbreaker and scourge cry train, while mesmer can insta blow you up while in stealth and if that fails, warp half the map away. Not calling them OP, but the balance of damage and risk is a bit off. I would then say, as much as the high population of thief complain, they are also a bit of a golden child.

[Svarty.8019]

> @Bish.8627 said:

> everyone was quick to get on the spellbreaker and scourge cry train, while mesmer can insta blow you up while in stealth

 

The only saving grace of the Mesmer is that it's so horribly difficult to master that barely anybody touches it with a barge-pole. This is why there weren't so many complaints about it.

[NaiveBayes.2587]

> @otto.5684 said:

> I would say guardian. Tends to be neither Over powered or underpowered in most metas. Most of guardian weapons are usable in both PvP and PvE. And not only has strong builds for both its elites, it also has a strong core builds. In additional, it has builds varying from bunker to glass cannon.

>

> It has issues, but is the most versatile class. This is sure sign of through development.

 

This.

Because I don't think the devs actually have a favourite, I answered this as "Which profession has ArenaNet done the best job with over time" and I think it is pretty clear that Guardian answers this question for the above reasons. It's just viable everywhere with a variety of builds to boot, It's the closest profession to achieving that "any profession can fit any role" dream ArenaNet had.

[zinkz.7045]

I somehow doubt there is a 'favourite', if you mean which profession has fared the best over the history of the game, then really there is no argument, there are two that bar very, very rare periods have always been between decent and top tier / broken OP in all three game modes - Guardian and Ele.

 

 

[Lily.1935]

I'm a bit surprised no one said ranger considering we do have one dev who's favorite is ranger and we do hear and see a lot of love for the profession. I said warrior because interviews I've seen have suggested that warrior is the favorite with 90% of the devs saying warrior and like, one engineer. Of course this was back at GW2's release and their thoughts could have changed.

[Svarty.8019]

These are fun polls, I'm enjoying them as they are an interesting gauge of player perception. Multiple factors should be taken into account when assessing the results, however;

* Game modes - lots of players don't play more than one game-mode, different classes are more or less powerful in different modes (sometimes),

* Favourite Class - lots of players tend to play one favourite class, so they're going to vote against themselves because nobody thinks they are favourite,

* Expac Blues - many of the responses here add the caveat, "Judging by the expac", so you're not getting an over-the-life-of-the-game result,

* New Players - new players don't know the history of the classes, which were OP and now aren't etc., so how are they to judge which is favourite?

[xDudisx.5914]

Lol at people voting elementalist. It is trash tier in pvp right now. It only shines in pve against hp sponge bosses.

[needbeer.1687]

> @Sharkey.9805 said:

> At the very least they put the most work into ele. They almost have to, considering how attunements work, it's a balance nightmare. Weaver didn't do them any favors either.

>

> Warriors are generally set up as the most accessible specs though up until spell breaker were a tough sell in PvP and WvW. Turns out they just had to give them a bunch of GW1 mesmer hexes, go fig. Wonder when GW2 mesmers are gonna get em :kissing_wink:

>

> Guardians had a pretty huge gap in HoT where they had niche play. It's more than better now, of course.

>

> And yes, ANet doesn't play favorites and don't have least favorites, of course they don't. Nothing wrong with a little veiled venting though, feedback is feedback :star:

 

have you played necro/reaper? anyone who has knows anet hates them.

[Elementalist Owner.7802]

Not from a balance standpoint, but mesmer has to be the favorite because it's Arenanet's baby. When they made Mesmer back in GW1 it was a concept that hadn't been done in any other MMO. Warrior was your typical warrior. Ranger was your typical hunter class. Monk was your typical healer/priest class. Necromancer was your typical dark mage/warlock. And elementalist was your typical mage. But mesmer was something completely different.

 

Mesmer also has some of the most interesting mechanics like the way clones work, portals, moa, continuum split, etc.

[Westenev.5289]

On the whole, Guardian is viable in both support and DPS. While it's not be be-all-to-end-all, it also rarely recieves noticably gamebreaking nerfs, and is generally typically left in a good place. Also, after Druid in HoT, anet listened to the guardian community when they said they wanted a viable support spec with a unique buff - and now they have lots of support spells in their virtues, and can share their burns across 5 team mates by spamming a mantra that gives group quickness.

[Gigalmesh.8513]

I love the irony.

 

Seriously speaking the warrior and the guardian are pretty strong classes in every game aspect. I just want that same advantage in the remaining six classes.

 

[Phoebe Ascension.8437]

Warrior, Ray Cronacher favors it since launch. And given it more defensive power creep (full couunter, featherfood grace - resistance), etc, this is clearly their favorite. Ham/bow op. Berserker condi/confusion spam/interrupt spam op (but not as much and or as long). Now spellbreaker arguable on top (maybe after scourge). But what really bothers me (not per se that warriors gets it, but more like OTHERS not getting it), is that warrior (who has the most weapons in game by any class, see collectors edition guide, the difference is huge, warrior basically only doesnt have caster weapons, except torch), gets DUAL 1h weapon elite spec. Offhand dagger freebee!!. Holosmith sword, guardian axe, mirage axe, should have been offhand inclusion too. That only warrior gets it (on their lead amount of weapons mind you), shows favoritism (even if they don't realize it).

 

Ele perhaps in pve, but not in pvp.

 

I think someone new on the team, or generally the full team, really likes guardian, cause it went from 'ok' (or crap, depending on the player saying it), to outstanding condi damage, outstanding power, while still retaining, very good support.

 

Mesmer i think is not their favorite, it's to bad in open world imo compared to other classes (even though it's very good in pvp - but then the class is based around pvp, aka mesmerizing player enemies).

 

Necromancer is low on their list. The designers (not balance team) love it (great reaper and also scourge design), bad implementation in pvp/wvw (op scourge), and bad in pve too. a lot underpowered in dps (reaper/scourge).

 

I think Thief is high on their favorite lite (Karl Mclain loved it at launch) however i think the perma dodge/perma stealth mechanics), bind their hands, in what they can do to improve it. They did some things like venom share, sword/dagger auto improvement, death blossom improvement etc. But I think they are scared of how godmode it can be if they improve further. But i still think it needs (in pve) improvements.

 

Revenant was temporary very high favorite, but quickly dropped due to realizing (by them) how hard energy+cd is to balance (and having two heals). Renegate (especially shortbow) just subpar. Though the condi dps for renegate is nice in raids now (a step in right direction). Rev relies to much on 'burst defense' 'burst offense', wich long 'downtimes' in pve imo.

 

While soulbeast is great for raids, I think it's a general nerf to ranger in pve, cause it kills having the pet, while nerfing some old skills (like offhand torch 5), in favor of 'merged' dps. It's not all bad however. Lots of the merged skills are suprisingly great for ranger, and very flexible choice. I think they like ranger more then a lot of people admit. It's just the way it plays favors pve over wvw.

 

Engineer I think has become their 'lazy ele'. Lots of work, but since played by fewer players they put less effort in it. A shame! For instance crazy hard rotation (and if succesful wich is rarely so) still mediocre dps. Hello Anet? For how hard rotation is, dps should be even higher then elementalist. Overall most skills have to few impact (especially long lasting), for the profession to feel good. They keep balancing around the kits wich are quite weak as a weapon replacement (but still very fun to use). One thing they failed at (imo) is not giving holosmith (like warriors) a DOUBLE sword elite spec (just main hand, wtf).

[Lanhelin.3480]

Well, I can't tell what ANet's favourite class is, but the new game director [mains a unicorns shooting Thief](

"mains a Thief") :astonished:

[Cynz.9437]

Guards. They are always good in every mode. Maybe not always super OP but always viable.

 

End of the day however i think balance and design of the classes is heavily affected by marketing strategies and sales. When HoT was introduced they heavily nerfed war/thief so they could make room for revs. Revs were made pretty OP so everyone was kind of forced to buy xpac. Once again on example of this, they heavily nerfed acro so they could add acro v2.0 = Daredevil. HoT became mandatory. Just like for many other classes.

Years later, they nerf thieves for example and create mirage to replace them and abomination like scourge to rule them all. Once again, you want to (easily) wvw/pvp? Buy xpac. It is so obvious it hurts.

[gannondorf.7628]

> @starlinvf.1358 said:

> > @draxynnic.3719 said:

> > > @Arcaedus.7290 said:

> > > > @starlinvf.1358 said:

> > > > Anet has a whole doesn't have a favorite..... but the 3 lead designers have pretty clear bias' in their design methods. Now if you want to identify which one always gets way above their power budget, it would be the Guardian given their in-line support mechanics. It also represents their soft trinity design philosophy as functional concept, as it can fit into any meta the game currently enables.

> > > > I wouldn't claim its their Favorite.... instead I would claim that its their most successful proof of concept.

> > >

> > > Well said. Guard always seems to come out at least along the middle of the totem pole at worst in any game mode. Definitely not a favorite but tends to be one that they almost never overnerf.

> >

> > It's something I like about the profession. "In a good place" is a bit of a curse on the guardian forum (almost as bad as "purity of purpose" among engineers), but the truth is it generally does seem to be about the power level ArenaNet wants and thus doesn't have massive balance swings like some other professions do. It's rarely at the top, but I don't think it's ever been at the bottom either, and I think the only time it could be said to have had a 'your build just got removed from the game' update was when spirit weapons were reworked.

>

> If you look at how the game meta has evolved in all modes, the performance of Guardian pretty much dictates the performance of other classes by comparison. As a Psudeotank, the Guardian anchors every team comp imaginable.... and its only in the cases of extreme min/max setups where you'll ever see them excluded.

>

> Since putting together my Frontline FB for WvW, I've come to the realization that Celestial gear is actually the litmus test of all of the game's metas. That includes Raids, though its harder to see the relationship. Celestial will always work on a build that has a good spread of capabilities, and will be pretty damning to any build thats horridly overspecialized. With that perspective, you start to see the pattern of classes that have the hardest swings in any buff or nerf pass, because that power is derived from compounding numbers and/or overstacking specific mechanics. Ele as a class has also maintained fairly stable balance, despite having the widest performance range, and is also a class that consistently does well with Celestial gear. Cele Engineer used to be a thing, but changes in the trait layout are causing too many conflicts, due to much of its build craft being constructed on a number of very high impact traits. That change was startling, because prior to it, the Engineer's Hybrid design made it a prime candidate for Celestial's Hybrid stats.

>

> For raid meta, Cele can actively reveal problems in a class's buildcraft. Conceptually, Cele maintains a high statistical average, where as deep specialized builds have high niche performance, but low overall performance. Raid comps are intended to compensate for the latter.... however, the mechanical aspects of raids, and many of the encounters designed to be easily controlled, has lead to mechanical abuse to condense multiple roles into single a player. This is how we got ChronoTank doing 50% of the raid mechanics, freeing up 2 additional slots for raw DPS. While players consider this to be cleaver, its actually a failure of the raid mechanics. Thats why I'm hoping the next set of raids are punishing to glass cannons, to try to break up DPS meta thats all over the HOT raids.

 

I would love to see celestial engineer back :( As an engineer i find myself pretty underpowered compared to elementalist witch is pretty much more balanced for hybrid playstyle, have mechanics that work and don't have dead traits.

 

 

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

Warrior without a doubt. It is evident when they choose Rythlock, a warrior first, to be their mascot. Zojja would have been better, but Elementalist is not their favorite.

[draxynnic.3719]

> @"Phoebe Ascension.8437" said:

> Engineer I think has become their 'lazy ele'. Lots of work, but since played by fewer players they put less effort in it. A shame! For instance crazy hard rotation (and if succesful wich is rarely so) still mediocre dps. Hello Anet? For how hard rotation is, dps should be even higher then elementalist. Overall most skills have to few impact (especially long lasting), for the profession to feel good. They keep balancing around the kits wich are quite weak as a weapon replacement (but still very fun to use). One thing they failed at (imo) is not giving holosmith (like warriors) a DOUBLE sword elite spec (just main hand, kitten).

 

I think the reason why staff elementalist is allowed to have a lot of damage is because a lot of that damage is in the form of area fields and delayed effects that an enemy can simply move out of. When it's so easy to reduce the damage being dealt out by an elementalist simply by moving, it makes sense that their damage output, in ideal conditions, should be higher. While engineer has a few damaging fields, it doesn't rely on them like elementalist does.

 

Not saying that engineer couldn't stand to be better, but I think the reason why elementalist is 'allowed' more damage is based more on the 'the enemy can move out of it' than 'it requires a complex rotation'. Guardians have a similar effect.

[Zlater.6789]

Easily ele, warrior and mesmer.

These 3 guys have ALWAYS been godly, like there are times that they are occasionally not required in pvp, but it doesn't last long. For the rest of the game modes though they are pretty much locked in for good.

 

Guardian, engi and ranger are probably middle tier good, they have their times of good and bad, honestly these classes are probably in the best spot balance wise.

 

Necromancer, thief and revenant though. These poor suckers never get to see the light for long, It'll require a whole change of staff to get them to any place that they are consistently good in any game mode.

[Razor.6392]

Warrior has everything, and it's ANet's dream profession.

[Hitman.5829]

hahahahaha warrior on second place? We all know warrior is the least played class in GW2.

[Vagrant.7206]

Guardian, without a doubt. They've never, ever been weak in any game mode. The nerf bat touches them very softly.

[Ivantreil.3092]

> @"Hitman.5829" said:

> hahahahaha warrior on second place? We all know warrior is the least played class in GW2.

 

Engies would like a word of you

[Ivantreil.3092]

> @"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:

> Warrior without a doubt. It is evident when they choose Rythlock, a warrior first, to be their mascot. Zojja would have been better, but Elementalist is not their favorite.

 

Except Rytlock is a Rev now...

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

The class I can't play and personally don't like. Elementalist.