Do classes matter?

[Dobby.9651]

Hi all,

 

I'm new to the game and have been trying to figure out if classes matter or not? I'm looking for popular classes/builds(?) that are favored in both PvE and PvP; and who function more of a support capacity (healer). Any class/build recommendations? I see people mentioning a Druid/Chrono(?), but those don't seem to be a class?

 

Thanks all.

[Aridon.8362]

Yes favoritism is a huge thing in this game, necro, guardian, mesmers, and revenants are the most abused classes in the game.

[Dobby.9651]

> @"Aridon.8362" said:

> Yes favoritism is a huge thing in this game, necro, guardian, mesmers, and revenants are the most abused classes in the game.

 

What do you mean by absurd? :)

[Erasculio.2914]

> @"Dobby.9651" said:

> I see people mentioning a Druid/Chrono(?), but those don't seem to be a class?

 

They are specializations - kind of subprofessions within a profession.

 

Druid is a Ranger specialization. Chronomancer is a Mesmer specialization. Both can have a support role, but, if you are new to the game, I would suggest playing as a Druid (in other words, start as a Ranger, and later add the Druid specialization).

 

 

[Joraan Adenard.2061]

Many classes can fill the role of support/healer. Now, if you are looking at the "meta" healer build for endgame content, that would be the druid, not because it is the best healer (it isnt) but because of its offensive support. It is however being used less and less because other options are becoming better.

 

All these classes can be strong healers : elementalist (tempest), revenant, guardian (firebrand), mesmer (chrono), engineer (scrapper). Necro (scourge) is a very strong support but is more of a protector(barrier)/resurrecter than a proper healer I have also seen thief and warrior running healer builds but its pretty niche.

 

What you should remember : any class can fill many different roles and, unless you are running in an optimized group (which will only matter in endgame content), you shouldnt worry about your profession. Anyway, making alts is easy enough that, when you'll feel the need for a specific build, you'll be able to make one in a timely fashion.

[phs.6089]

Healing /Buffer support for PvP and PvE would be firebrand, that is PoF specialization for Guardian. Crono and Druid aren't really working for PvP, it's a PvE combo, that start to be questionable after several nerfes.

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

Classes are a big subject globally in the game. In a certain way - very simplified - there are sort of two "categories" inside the game:

- Activities that are better played/enjoyed with a specific class (Defined build with defined equipment, stats and skill rotation). Those are called "end game activities" like raid, WvW and fractals high levels.

- Activities where full freedom is possible, allowing to enjoy whatever we want and suits us best. That's everything in PvE explorable.

 

BUT! You will rapidly discover that this simplified overview is not as clear as it seems. =)

 

There are players who want the freedom to play the classes they want for end game activities, and on the other hand, there are players who feel that even for PvE explorable, a specific build should be used. This is a source of never ending discussions and regularly leads to conflictual situations inside the game. What comes in addition is that for one question, you will always get loads of different answers, because a lot in this game is a matter of personal experience and opinion.

 

I don't want to tell who is wrong or who is right. Each shall build up own opinion based on experience. The only thing I will allow me is to tell that as long a you are new, in a first step, you should test a bit each profession, see what you like, what you don't like, discover the different activities. Once you will know a bit about all that, you will be in a better position to decide if there is a class you prefer, and what activities you prefer, and so on. In short, take it easy before to start investing mats and gold into expensive equipment. Wait to know what you want to do. :)

 

I would also recommend you to go into a guild. You can then build up knowledges and experience with them, and from there, start making own choices.

[starlinvf.1358]

Since theres been a lot of examples, but not real explanation of how it works, I'll be dropping a huge info dump below. It'll be worth it.

 

At the base of all this, Guildwars 2 uses a Soft Trinity design philosophy for its classes. In practice, the Classes are NOT designed with a specific role in mind, but instead builds on a Class Methodology that gets adapted to multiple roles. Naturally classes still excel in some areas, and are weak in others, but the extent of these are a direct consequence of situational factors rather then express intent of "roles" by the Designers. If anything, the natural flexibility of the system has allowed players to outright break areas of the game when a good combination skills, traits and/or build pairings is found.

 

With that in mind, each class's power is internally weighted differently across different sections of their build options. For instance, Engineers are heavily weighted on their Utility skills, which feature heavily in their class mechanics via the Tool Belt and Utility Kit bundles. Elementalists are heavily weighted on Weapon choice, as it drastically changes their range and fighting style. Rangers and Guardians are evenly split between their weapon and utility, as their weapons determine their combat capabilities, while the utility skills determine their support and defense abilities. This can get even more complicated with Elite Specs, since they can fundamentally change class mechanics. For instance, the Necro's Death Shroud ability is designed mainly for self sustain, while leveraging traits to become an area menace. Reaper Shroud is a heavy damage melee brawler. And Dessert Shroud is an Area Denial and Support set. Same basic concept of the class mechanic, but modified for vastly different applications.

 

To get a picture of how unconventional this gets...... the Meta Tank build in Raids is NOT a Warrior or Guardian..... its not even a Heavy armor class. Its the Mesmer- a light armor, utility mage. This works because the Mesmer was made with PvP dueling in mind, as its class mechanics and core skill set gives it easy access to multiple damage avoidance abilities and control skills. Layered on top of this is the Chornomancer Espec, which is a support spec that easily maintains a set of strong boons across a whole party. By exploiting the fact that the majority of raid bosses tend to focus on a single target (a design choice by the Raid devs to recreate WoW-type raids), players had managed to compress the jobs of 3 different builds into a single party slot.

 

Every class has the ability to fill any given role type... but its mileage varies heavily based on the situation you are trying to put them in. Some classes/specs can be pretty broad overall, yet may have to be laser focused to do a certain type of role. For instance, a Support Warrior has very narrow applications and has to focus the entire build toward it, while an Ele can mix healing into an existing build without a complete retooling. This is why you tend to see specific recommendations for classes for certain situations, as players tend to share builds that are both effective and easy to use. And because the different game modes have vastly different requirements and demands, most builds are tailored with specific goals in mind. For instance..... Open world has very simple enemies, so damage focused builds that can burst down enemies before they become a threat tend to thrive. But because SOME enemies have access to control skills, or require specific strategies, the majority of recommended open world builds are 85% damage/15% Utility to give leeway when you do run into harder enemies. Raids are designed around 10 man teams, so each player can go 100% into a specific job and use the Team composition to cover the weaknesses. With PvP you have to have to balance defense with damage output, since your teams are random, and have to both stand on your own while playing off the strengths of your team mate's builds. In world vs world, the large number of players in the field means performance is measured as an aggregate of the groups combined damage output, area support, and area control.

 

 

Now with that aside, each class has a theme and methodology that you need to consider when picking what to run for a situation or game mode.

 

- Warrior are best described as Brawlers. They have a huge base HP pool, but the majority of their self sustain comes from, and plays into combat momentum. As long as they can keep actively fighting, it feeds their Adrenaline mechanic that fuels traits for everything from damage bonuses, to condition clearing, and even self healing. Benefiting from highly aggressive play styles, they aren't particularly complicated once you have their builds completely set up and learned the secondary utility functions of their weapon skills.

 

 

- Guardians are a multi-purpose group support frame work, with nearly every single one of their skills doubling as either direct or indirect group support. One their own, their active defenses make them one of the most sturdy classes in the game. As part of a group, they have an amplifying effect by letting allies shrug off damage or CCs that would normally stop them in their tracks. Despite having a lot of support features, Guardians are no slouch in combat either. If you want versatile support, Guardian has been the game's go-to since the beginning, and has been a keystone in nearly every meta.

 

 

- Revenants are Situational Specialists. The first and only post-launch addition the game's classes, the Rev is a bit odd in that it was originally and specifically designed for Raid metas. Its class mechanic uses themed Legends, each of which corresponds to a particular type of role, and directly controls what utility skills (which are at the center of its builds, and thus role defining) it has access to. It feels clunky compared to the other classes at first, but thats largely because it plays to opportunity cost with its high impact, but difficult to spam skills.

 

 

- Ranger is another situation specialist that is internally focused, but externally broad. What this means is a Ranger has to actively trade between what functions it wants to have. However, each of those choices have very clear purpose, and makes various skill chains extremely obvious. This makes their buildcraft somewhat easier to understand, but much harder to get the kind of quirky, cross synergy power amplification the other classes tend to enjoy. Also included, and often complained about, is the Ranger's Pet as a class mechanic. The pet mechanics are unimpressive until you get Soul Beast espec to basically get rid of it.

 

- Engineers are the game's resident jack of all trades. While they have genius levels of utility, they usually can't hit the kind of peak performance the other classes have an option for. Fortunately this isn't enough to discourage them, as their wide range of skills can easily be swapped to deal with various types of problems, and the Holosmith espec giving them a raw DPS option thats good just about everywhere. Their main class mechanic is the Tool Belt, which are 5 additional, highly useful skills, based on which utility skills (6-0) you have loaded. Explaining on paper doesn't do it justice, and is something that you have to play first hand to truly understand.

 

- Thief is dueling class that specializes in one on one combat, utilizing a combination of stealth, teleports, and burst damage to spike a target while jukeing counter attacks. Their class mechanic is Initiative, which is a resource that fuels your weapon skills, and can be chained without any kind of cool down. One of the harder classes to play due to the high speed, high precision mouse work needed to take full advantage of the teleports. Oddly this is the only class that never had a sensible support build, since 90% of everything it has is either damage related or exists to setup damage bursts.

 

- Necromancer is a Tankish mage class. Its class mechanic, Shroud, acts as a second life bar for soaking damage, and leverages traits to enhance their offensive and defense capabilities. Overall the class specializes in debuffing and area menace, actively tearing down enemy defenses and putting sustained pressure until they crack. Despite having a whole line of minion skills, you'll be surprised to learn that this isn't the main focus of the class. Very straight forward to play, but its lack of mobility may frustrate some people. (If you do try it, definitely go Reaper at some point... insane amounts of fun)

 

- Mesmer is somewhat unique to the Guildwars franchise. A Magical Duelist that summons illusions to confuse and misdirect foes, while the Mesmer engages them directly in both long and short range combat. While individual clones are not particularly dangerous, the memser's ability to have multiple on the field, barely distinguishable from their master, makes singling out the original difficult. The illusions also fuel the various class mechanics and traits, sacrificing them for a major burst of damage, leveraging traits to inflict debilitating effects on a continuous basis, or enriching the Mesmer through various buffs. One of the most fun classes to play once you get the hang of it, and is currently the only "Must have" pick for any raid comp.

 

- Elementalist is a hyper versatile mage, that dynamically switch between offensive, defense and supportive functions in the middle of combat. Their weapon skills are dynamically changed in step with their elemental attument (the class mechanic), effectively giving them 20 weapon skills on hand plus the 5 utilities. Cycling through skills on a near continuous basis, playing one is often described as playing a piano. Choice of weapon determines their combat style, but the 4 elemental attunements share a common theme across all of them. If you want a little bit of everything, and don't mind juggling hot keys (or buying a 12 button mouse), Elementalist is a good pick.

[kratan.4619]

Only as far as what play style you enjoy.

[MokahTGS.7850]

Looking at the response from starlinvf.1358 and then at the response from kratan.4619 is just funny to me. Both valid...