What is the best solo class in PoF?

[etsubmariner.4690]

I've been destroying solo content with my Scourge using only Scourge skills. Hell, even Balthazar had a hard time with all my sand blowing in his eyes the 2nd time he attacks. It's blows away anything else I have. On the other side, I played Deadeye first through PoF. It wasn't great, but when it shines, it totally kills in some situations.

[sephiroth.4217]

I've been getting through content pretty easily on a Celestial/Viper Weaver.

[castlemanic.3198]

Can any scourges help with the gear that they're using? I hear vipers is good, but i'm afraid of the cost as I don't craft, are there any alternatives?

[Irreverent.3594]

Deadeye sniping is very fun, base staff/dd necro (no minions) was good as usual, doing with spellbreaker right now.

So far especially spellbreaker super fun. Dishing out all the interrupts and giving mobs/bosses a taste of their own medicine mmm delicious

[Player.9621]

vanilla p/p thief is easymode. i didnt really use the new dead eye rifle skills i stayed with dual pistols for the malace unload heals and used the new deadeye F skills, super effective imo with reduced inc damage and wotnot

necro is easy, very easy

spellbreaker is solid and so is holosmith but not as easy as above

i was surprised with how effective the new warrior class is but i only blasted through the HPs on that one and did so with minimal effort

the new revenant class was pretty painful until i had it all maxed out then it seemed like a lot of fun but again, only hit the HPs to max the class

and mesmer is ....broken.

not done ele yet, thats next

[RAWR.4273]

> @Chadramar.8156 said:

> What do the people who say chronomancer use in the open world? Really looking for inspiration here, as someone who doesn't do instanced content but would like to like that class more.

 

I use Greatsword and Scepter/Shield. Domination and Illusions. Greatsword is my "offensive" stance and Scepter/Shield is my "defensive" stance. I use Signet of Ether and Signet of Inspiration.

 

Play around with it and maybe you'll like it.

[Warlyx.6732]

some issues as condi soulbeast but learning the ropes , have seen some holo crush enemies left and right and i was impressed

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

Power Reaper MM, I ran into the Mouth of torment to get all the POIs and Vista stopping only to get the Vista trailing between 10 and 20 Forged, I may have been downed quite a few times but I left a pile of corpses, only to mess up my jump and die.

[blambidy.3216]

The easiest so far to me was engineer. I did ranger and thief already. Actually it's probably tied together with thief and engi. Since engineer you have turrets. And thief you don't ever get hit. Thief you just p,p and then get that staff and blind and dodge. Ranger was probably a little harder because you get hit all the time. No smoke or blinders. I was running condi. Dagger and torch. And then shortbow. But the traps made it easy. Even if I got down the bosses died and I rallied. Actually one hp I needed another person to get with ranger and engi. But thief I just ran in and hit the consume and got it cause of stealth. So best is definitely thief or Daredevil. I didn't do deadeye cause I was getting all hps for that class. I forgot the map but it's not crystal. Or highlands or vabbi. You have to run into this big place with a big mob. That place I needed the thief alone to make it. Other classes I needed more. So if you want the easiest way to get around. Definitely thief.

[Drekor.5217]

Scourge is probably the best, they combine a LOT of damage with a solid amount of sustain and a huge buffer of health so that you don't have to worry about active defenses like a DH or DD. You want to solo champ meta events? or bounties? or fractals? Scourge can do it easily.

[Lysander Freeman.4186]

Ranger for me was fine. I ran Druid for 95% of it. The other 5% was playing with Soulbeast just because it's there. I'm still on the fence about Soulbeast even now. Having a pet for a personal meat shield and LB3 so mobs focus agro back on the pet works 99% of the time open PoF.

[Chickenooble.5014]

Mesmer is unkillable in PvE with all the Clones and Phantasms you can spawn to distract and take damage. Mesmer is unkillable in PvE with all the Clones and Phantasms you can spawn to distract and take damage. Mesmer is unkillable in PvE with all the Clones and Phantasms you can spawn to distract and take damage. Mesmer is unkillable in PvE with all the Clones and Phantasms you can spawn to distract and take damage. Mesmer is unkillable in PvE with all the Clones and Phantasms you can spawn to distract and take damage. Mesmer is unkillable in PvE with all the Clones and Phantasms you can spawn to distract and take damage. Mesmer is unkillable in PvE with all the Clones and Phantasms you can spawn to distract and take damage. Mesmer is unkillable in PvE with all the Clones and Phantasms you can spawn to distract and take damage.

[sorudo.9054]

the reaper, ones you use a reaper anything else feels horrible to play.

[dchsknight.3042]

I have to say I think what ever class you are comfortable with is the easiest. I mean seriously look at the variety of answers on this forum. I have done both a Renegade and a scourge. Both switching to the spec as soon as I could equip it. I unlocked HP's first adn then did story. And i have to say, my Renegade was super fun. My necro could od it with no problems but I feel kind of bored with it.

[StinVec.3621]

> @"Lysander Freeman.4186" said:

> Ranger for me was fine. I ran Druid for 95% of it. The other 5% was playing with Soulbeast just because it's there. I'm still on the fence about Soulbeast even now. Having a pet for a personal meat shield and LB3 so mobs focus agro back on the pet works 99% of the time open PoF.

 

Mostly the same for me. I've been playing through solo (with random passersby) using core ranger and letting my pet take hits and ditching aggro with LB3. Same as I played pretty much all of core Tyria for over 5 years. Soulbeast does not add enough stats to compensate for loss of pet taking aggro which is then all directed at me, so I only activate it if I am about to go down to use the trait that heals me instead of being downed, which results in my pet returning to take aggro again.

 

I wish I could ditch relying on my pet, but soulbeast is not designed to be used all the time, or even for more than a few seconds, disappointingly. Even those few seconds of use are not all that useful. Loss of pet for aggro/self damage mitigation with only 3 underwhelming and mostly useless melee skills and barely any stat increase is not worth it to me. The spec also deactivates when mounting so it needs to be re-enabled every few seconds due to the constant mounting/unmounting while playing. That 'fart cloud' is also quite annoying.

 

I'll be sticking with core ranger with arctodus that has always worked well enough and essentially ignoring soulbeast, sadly.

(quite disappointed that ranger still doesn't have a _real_ petless option, and likely never will now that ANet has made their idea of a petless spec)

 

OP, I recommend looking to give this style of play a try in PoF to see if it is enjoyable to you.

[TheVindelator.8239]

> @castlemanic.3198 said:

> Can any scourges help with the gear that they're using? I hear vipers is good, but i'm afraid of the cost as I don't craft, are there any alternatives?

 

Carrion would do the trick for soloing. Rabid would be even cheaper and a little sub par but would do the job. Viper's armor may be crafted only (unless you redo HoT a million times) but if you want to put in some time, you can pick up ascended viper's trinkets via the living world season 3 zones.

[TEKnowledgy.1760]

All that i've used so far worked well i started on ranger this was so i could quickly learn the mobs and how they do what they do. I'd sit back observe while firing bow and pet tanks (most my builds on all classes relying on melee except for ranger and ele and my 2 mule chars lol) So this helped me understand the mobs there skills there attack ranges etc. Once I learnt the majority of mobs per maps i use my melee classes to effectively fight them.

I always solo I rarely ever do group things out side of open world content. Even then I'm just around people not in actual group.

 

I just wanna toss this little tip out there for other people, not sure if other rangers have noticed this yet, but aggro is more aggressive here we all notice the range is more aggressive, but I mean in combat aggro has become more aggressive as a whole compared to core and hot. The aggro pets are gaining are breaking and coming after ranger regardless if ranger is attacking same mob as pet or not. i believe they've done this intentionally to make taunt traits and skills more effective and useful, just thought I'd toss that out there might save someone trouble in the future.

 

But for me on topic, i like all the classes I have used so far for solo play. Those classes have been engineer (scrapper) (for some reason I'm not liking holosmith at all just isn't my thing) ive used warrior ive used ranger and i tried guardian, im new to this class. I'm still working its kinks out, trying to find my play style sweet spot with him, so ive put him back on the bench so to speak for now. Also have used revenant. So far all of those ive tried I do just as good with any of them. Some kill quicker than others, some more tougher and can take on more at once, but overall they all are equally effective. they are all my favorite.

 

Those classes I haven't played yet in PoF are mesmer, ele, necro and thief. My mesmer she's setup and ready to be used sweet spots found just haven't had time to play with her yet in PoF. Ele is brand new, i made her boosted her to 80 the day I bought PoF, which was last tuesday (oct. 9th). Necro and thief are my mules so leveling them with tomes, least i have those two classes to tinker with in the future.

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

Condi burnzerker for me.

[thehipone.6812]

Power reaper is easy mode. If you really want something that is near indestructible and can still dish out the pain, a [spite/blood/reaper](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR39Gt0g90A0bilaBDKBEAmBxdRrxplwUYLA-jhBBABAcRAOTJYlq/EwTAAr9Hlf5pbAA-e) build with wells can aggro everything on the map, survive, and kill. You have ~50% protection uptime if you run well of blood, siphons for sustain and plenty of CC to break bars. And you don't have to run some crummy stat set.

 

Holosmith with its CC and damage capabilities can also wreck packs of stuff and can be quite durable. Spectrum shield, frost aura, protection and stability all easily accessible. Plus you can quickly slot in utility goggles to deal with those annoying sand lions or scarab blind spammers. I run with rifle for a ranged option, more cc, and the ability to blunderbuss stuff in the face. [build](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAEnEIDlIj1IDcJjlRkCsWylAovfH4E+zqA-jhBBABYt/o8LPdAVq+DAXAgAeAAnpEEA-e)

[Mea.5491]

Any profession can solo, depends on gear. My Celestial Engineer is invincible.

[Anhellbro.7210]

> @Falados.7165 said:

> Scourge MM > all + Firebrand

 

lel firebrand trash wis 11 k hp perma death im melle from all mobs

[Esquilax.3491]

For the few classes I've tried (all in glass dps gear) from easiest to worst:

 

Renegade has a warband summon that dazes everything and gives stability for 10 secs, if you open with that and switch to malyx to ramp up your DoTs you are basically going to win. Plus it has a ranged option now for extra safety.

 

Mesmer mirage is super easy obviously thanks to all the clones and phantasms as usual. Not the highest damage but still fun.

 

Scourge is ez thanks to having 21k HP in glass gear (lol) barrier spam and high DoT pressure.

 

My ele weaver is in marauder gear using sword but damage seems sorta low and I have no idea what I'm doing with element switching other than some sort of fire/lightning/earth combo and water for heals.

 

Firebrand holy crap it has good damage from all the burns but with 11k HP damn I get downed quick. Luckily I usually rally from burn spam so it's okay.

 

Holosmith I just started and haven't really unlocked any skills yet but I'm getting rekt and frustrated in zerker gear with sword.

[Butch.4957]

I don’t know about anyone else, but I did the entire expansion on an assassin spec daredevil build. The only time I had trouble was in the very last story instance. And I would not even call it trouble, I just had to spend 15 minutes fighting the final boss. I never even fully died, I just went into down state.

[Jephery.8915]

These professions give up very little damage for sustain. You don't have to adjust your playstyle for it or gear for it (still have to dodge though):

 

Necromancer (Condition Leech trait)

Warrior (Might Makes Right trait)

Thief (Crit Leech trait)

 

These traits are in very good trait lines and are relatively minor dps losses to take compared to what other classes have to sacrifice for similar sustain (usually having to use trait lines that aren't very good outside of dedicated support builds, or having to switch to low dps weapons/stances to recover health).

[DoctorOverlord.8620]

Thanks for making this thread OP. I have come back to the game after a long break (never played any HoT) and I don't seem to be able to find a class I like for doing the Story chapters.

 

> @"dchsknight.3042" said:

> I have to say I think what ever class you are comfortable with is the easiest. I mean seriously look at the variety of answers on this forum

I have to disagree. You say look at variety in thread, but I really don't see much variety, I see the new Specialization classes are clearly preferred choices.

 

My favorite class before I left the game (D/D ele) did not fare well when I used them in the Storyline. They did okay in open world but they got stomped even in the early Story chapters. I could still finish the chapters, but the aggravation of needing armor repairs so often made it no longer fun. (On a side note - with all the vast improvements I see in the game now, why is an outdated mechanic like armor repair still a thing in it? Oh well.)

 

So I dropped the ele and I went to the other class I had been playing prior to my break - a plain-old, pre-PoF S/P + SB Thief. I re-did same Story chapters and I had far less problems. However although I was not dying, the gameplay just wasn't that enjoyable. After reading this thead is seems like DeadEye might be a good choice, so I'll give it a try.

 

With everyone talking about the Elite classes, I guess that would be a good choice to try. Maybe I'll stick with the thief and change to Deadeye. That Elite class does sound interesting, and perhaps gameplay of that class will be more entertaining.

 

> @"Player.9621" said:

> vanilla p/p thief is easymode.

> not done ele yet, thats next

You say you played a vanilla P/P Thief but then you talk about Deadeye skills. Were you playing a P/P Deadeye?

 

Also how did your ele experience go? I'll admit was probably not kiting effectively when I was using my ele since it has been a while since I played, but regardless, the general gameplay in the Story chapters was just not enjoyable. I am hoping I'll find a better class to make it more fun, but it is too bad the story content has not been effectively tuned for all classes and players feel the need to make threads like this to find one that is the most enjoyable.