16 replies to this topic

[Lord_Ironmane]

So was wondering this, seems that some classes are way more heavily played than others, and it also seems to be getting worse.

First day I saw a great mix of classes running all about, second less, and today even less than before. Map chat in low level zones is alight with people rerolling Elementalist, Guardian, and Warrior to the point where it seems they pretty make up 75% of the games population.

How do you think the population sits at the moment? Do you think it may be an issue? I mean, sure the game has no tanks or healers, but how many people are going to want multiple warrior in a dungeon?

[Rukioish]

Engineer for life. And personally you should never double up on anything in dungeons, except maybe guardians.

[dancingmonkey]

Rukioish, on 28 August 2012 - 03:13 AM, said:

Engineer for life. And personally you should never double up on anything in dungeons, except maybe guardians.

What he said......

I love me, my engineer. I could care less what all those band wagoners are doing, as long as I am having fun. I am playing an engineer and having fun. If playing those 3 classes is fun for all those other folks, then good, missions accomplished.

Edited by dancingmonkey, 28 August 2012 - 03:34 AM.

[Lord_Ironmane]

Well the issue I'm talking here, is if the majority of the player base is in say, 3 classes, then anyone playing those classes will have a much harder time dungeoning if it's not to viable to bring more than one of each class.

Speaking of, why is it not as viable to not take multiple of a class? Boons stack for petes sake.

[Psikerlord]

Glad to hear lots of eles, warriors and guardians. Makes my norn thief more unique!

[Delusional]

I don't see too many Mesmers, and apparently neither does anybody else.
I see Necros even less than Mesmers.

Haven't really paid attention to Engineers.

I do see A LOT of Ele's, Warriors, and Thiefs.

[xapher19]

I love my Engineer :3

[FateZero]

Human Mesmer here. Rampaging WvW with my army of illusions and magic tricks

[Kersimonou]

Rarely seen eles on my world. Top 3 most common seem to be ranger, engineer and warrior. Every DE is just a barrage of arrows and bullets flying over my head.

Engineers seem most common here with necro being super rare

[Iron Legionnaire]

There are too many Mesmers in sPvP.

I hate Mesmers.

[Wifflebottom]

I see lots of rangers, warriors, and guardians.  The least I see are mesmers and necros

[Ardeni]

I'm happy with my ranger. I am not really interested in elementalist (except perhaps for WvW), warrior or guardian. My second character will most likely be thief or mesmer. Personally I don't care about what others choose. At least my friends have gone with different professions so we won't have great difficulties forming parties.

[Kraag_Deadsoul]

It's probably a combination of personal preference, approachability, familiarity, and ease with which the professions can be picked up.  Before anyone starts jumping on that last statement, understand I'm making a distinction between the ease with which a new player can start a profession versus how easy it is to play the profession.  I fully agree that all of the professions have the potential for requiring great skill to leverage their full potential.

Everybody knows what an elementalist and warrior (includes guardian) are; they're pretty standard classes/professions across all MMOs with familiar mechanics (or so they assume).  Thus, players may find it easier to start their GW2 career with one of those stock professions as compared to the mesmer or necromancer, for example.  We may see some balancing of the profession populations as the game progresses as players branch out and experiment with new alternate characters.

Even so, the population will likely remain skewed towards the elementalist, guardian, and warrior end.  Necromancers, for example, almost always rank at the bottom of any population list, regardless of which game we're talking about (and regardless of what they may be named in a different game; Warlock, for example).  It's as much about how the "theme" of a class/profession appeals (or doesn't) to a person as it is about the mechanics of how the class is played.  "Master of Death" doesn't seem to rank high on most peoples lists of "class I want to play", for some reason.  Though, honestly, we necromancers can be quite nice once you get to know us (and get past the stench of decaying minions).

In a way, this actually fits well with the "feel" of the game.  If you were tranported back in time to medeival Europe, you'd likely find knights (warriors) greatly outnumbering undertakers (necromancers).  If every other person you met was a Necromancer, it would sort of detract from the mystery and menace of a "Master of Death".  On the other hand, it's completely normal and expected to see a dozen warriors milling about.

As to the dungeon issue, the game is designed so you could run a dungeon with 5 warriors or 5 elementalists if you wanted.  That isn't to say it will be the easiest way to complete the dungeon; but videos have demonstrated that it can be done.  So I don't think you have to worry too much about the lack of variety of the professions being an issue where the dungeons are concerned.

Overall, it appears the profession populations are settling at about where they usually are in comparing them to any other MMORPG, given that we don't have a dedicated healer class such as monk or priest. I wonder if that makes the necromancer the new monk?  YAY!  People will want us to join them now

Edited by Kraag_Deadsoul, 28 August 2012 - 04:49 AM.

[Finder]

My main is an Elementalist...but not because of any bandwagon effect...I've played mages since MMOs began.  But I bought 3 character slots and have one of every class, I plan to play them all to at least some degree.

Edited by Finder, 28 August 2012 - 05:05 AM.

[davadude]

I've not see any elementalist besides myself actively playing.  We'll see!

[MikelHochst]

I see lots of rangers, warriors, and guardians.

[Don Fawful]

I to see almost nothing but elementalists, warriors and guardians. I don't mind but the effects do get on my nerves. (especially fire elementalist effects)

My decision to play a necromancer as my main was decided since GW1 my main there was a necromancer and I haven't looked back since. And since there is no ritualist i'll just have to make do haha.