12 replies to this topic

[OhReallyNoWay]

The game is out for about 4 months now. Which profession do you think is the most "stable", i.e. with the least glaring issues? Consider the factors such as:

- Build variety
- Bugs
- PVE "viability" (dps, survivability)
- Risk:reward ratio
- Efficiency
- Susceptibility to buffs and nerfs

I read often that the Warriors are the golden standard for class balance. Agree? Disagree? Which profession do you think needs the most fixes?


Happy discussion.

[Sheepski]

Well as it's in the PvE section, I'll assume you're talking about that alone.

From my experience, having played 2 to level 80 and all others to various low levels:

Most Stable

Warrior
Guardian
Thief
Engineer
(Mesmer
Necro                Mes, Nec, Rang could be in any order imo...
Ranger)
Elementalist


That's from my experience anyway, and obviously I wouldn't turn away any class just because it's low on my list... and I haven't played around with the bottom 5 enough to really know them inside and out.

[SpelignErrir]

I don't understand why everybody thinks Necro is underpowered or imbalanced. Great control class and a huge health pool.

[Featherman]

SpelignErrir, on 17 November 2012 - 12:02 AM, said:

I don't understand why everybody thinks Necro is underpowered or imbalanced. Great control class and a huge health pool.

Bugs and lack of build diversity :/
Still pretty buggy even after the patch too haha.

[Prince Nightwing]

Keep in mind that I have no previous bias of any sorts. I have many char slots and have played every single class extensively especially in PvP.

1. Warriors
2. Guardians
3. Thief
4. Mesmers
5. Engineers
6. Ranger
7. Necro
8. Elementalist - After the evasive arcana nerf.... ouch.

Edited by Prince Nightwing, 17 November 2012 - 01:44 AM.

[Wifflebottom]

PvE
1. Warriors: Diverse builds, efficient, high damage and survivability. It's a warrior in a MMO so I doubt they'll be getting any nerfs
2. Guardians: No great ranged builds, decent damage high survivability, masterful boon management. Buff scepter
3. Thief: Plenty of good sets except sword/dagger maybe, high damage and survivability(if using stealth). Nerfs to stealth
4. Ranger: Not very diverse builds mostly pew pew with bow, everything's pretty average but they have good condition damage. In need of some buffs
5. Engineer: Haven't played as much but they seem alright. IDK
6. Mesmer: Difficult to face multiple mobs at once but they're a very high single target damage class, great condition/boon management, buggy AI and traits. Probably the profession that'll be nerfed every patch
7. Necro: Not many builds, high condition damage and management, ability to inflict AoE conditions which is helpful. Buff that fixes minion AI
8. Ele: Plenty of builds, AoE master, good support. Nerfs

PvP
1. Thief: Backstab, Unicorn, Venom, etc. Reward>>>>>>>>Risk, you can dish out ridiculous numbers and then vanish. Incredible damage and survivability. Nerf, probably remove evasion from some of the thief's attacks *cough*death blossom*cough
2. Guardian: Bunker God. Reward>Risk, low damage but you can consistently deny opponents from capping points or damaging you or teammates. Nerf, Anet doesn't like bunkers
3. Warrior: Very balanced, plenty of builds out there. Buff because this game is an MMO and it's a warrior
4. Mesmer: Very powerful 1v1, plenty of viable builds but scepter and torch need a buff imo. Bunker capability. In a very unstable place. We'll probably be the class that is always either UP or OP
5. Engineer: Great bunker and condition/boon management. Buff hopefully
6. Necro (severely lacking in builds): Conditions that's about it, can bunker but other classes do it better. Hopefully buffed
7. Elementalist: Risk grossly out weighs the reward for this profession, especially with their recent nerf, in a very unstable state.
8. Ranger: There not very good in PvP right now at all I think, hopefully they get a buff

Edited by Mr_Original, 17 November 2012 - 02:21 AM.

[OhReallyNoWay]

Mr_Original, on 17 November 2012 - 02:20 AM, said:

PvE
1. Warriors: Diverse builds, efficient, high damage and survivability. It's a warrior in a MMO so I doubt they'll be getting any nerfs
2. Guardians: No great ranged builds, decent damage high survivability, masterful boon management. Buff scepter
3. Thief: Plenty of good sets except sword/dagger maybe, high damage and survivability(if using stealth). Nerfs to stealth
4. Ranger: Not very diverse builds mostly pew pew with bow, everything's pretty average but they have good condition damage. In need of some buffs
5. Engineer: Haven't played as much but they seem alright. IDK
6. Mesmer: Difficult to face multiple mobs at once but they're a very high single target damage class, great condition/boon management, buggy AI and traits. Probably the profession that'll be nerfed every patch
7. Necro: Not many builds, high condition damage and management, ability to inflict AoE conditions which is helpful. Buff that fixes minion AI
8. Ele: Plenty of builds, AoE master, good support. Nerfs

PvP
1. Thief: Backstab, Unicorn, Venom, etc. Reward>>>>>>>>Risk, you can dish out ridiculous numbers and then vanish. Incredible damage and survivability. Nerf, probably remove evasion from some of the thief's attacks *cough*death blossom*cough
2. Guardian: Bunker God. Reward>Risk, low damage but you can consistently deny opponents from capping points or damaging you or teammates. Nerf, Anet doesn't like bunkers
3. Warrior: Very balanced, plenty of builds out there. Buff because this game is an MMO and it's a warrior
4. Mesmer: Very powerful 1v1, plenty of viable builds but scepter and torch need a buff imo. Bunker capability. In a very unstable place. We'll probably be the class that is always either UP or OP
5. Engineer: Great bunker and condition/boon management. Buff hopefully
6. Necro (severely lacking in builds): Conditions that's about it, can bunker but other classes do it better. Hopefully buffed
7. Elementalist: Risk grossly out weighs the reward for this profession, especially with their recent nerf, in a very unstable state.
8. Ranger: There not very good in PvP right now at all I think, hopefully they get a buff

I thought ranger would rank higher up on the lists. Other than pet management, I haven't seen much complaints.

[Dahk]

For Rangers:

- Build variety

Small.  Most build revolve around short bow.  The great sword was buffed, making it viable, but it's still a very defensive weapon.  The long bow is viable, but just barely.  All other weapons are only really used as secondary weapons to swap to occasionally and even then, it's mostly the warhorn for the swiftness buff.

Currently, support builds aren't really viable since spirits die way too easily, even if you trait to double their health pool.  Direct damage and condition damage are the only builds anyone's using right now, although a tankier build with a greatsword may be alright.

- Bugs

Not too many bugs, but one huge glaring bug that's been around since the game's release is on the 1h sword that roots you in place on the auto-attack.

- PVE "viability" (dps, survivability)

Definitely viable, but not often sought after since they don't do anything much better than other classes.  Also, pets tend to keel over whenever any boss gives them an unpleasant glare.

- Risk:reward ratio

Because so many ranger abilities rely on risky positioning, such as getting close in order to get the maximum condition application with Poison Volley or Split Blade, there is a good bit of risk reward.  Also, the short bow and longbow both reward better damage for positioning since the short bow applies a bleed when flanking an enemy and the longbow gives additional damage at further distance.  Finally, traps also add to the risk/reward since they have a relatively short range (assuming you traited to be able to aim them).

- Efficiency

Not exactly sure what you mean by this.

- Susceptibility to buffs and nerfs

There's nothing that really needs a nerf right now.  Buffs have been promised for some time now, but we were supposed to get them with this latest patch to make more builds and weapons more viable.  However, only the greatsword was really fixed.  Supposedly, they're still testing some other buffs that will come later on in the next patch, but I'm not holding my breath.

Compared to classes like thiefs and mesmers, I don't think there are any patches in the future that will make a big difference in where rangers are in terms of power, so balance-wise, they're in a pretty stable spot.



Oh, also agreed with Mr_Original for the most part, although I don't think rangers are in that bad of a state for sPvP right now, although it's pretty much dependent on them running a short bow trap build and nothing else.

Edited by Dahk, 18 November 2012 - 03:36 AM.

[OhReallyNoWay]

Dahk, on 18 November 2012 - 03:31 AM, said:

- Efficiency

Not exactly sure what you mean by this.

Let's just call it the level of ease in clearing dungeons, and killing hordes, etc. Does it require lots of APM to get the job done or not? Somewhere along those lines.

--

Otherwise, rangers do seem stable as you have pointed out.

[Dahk]

OhReallyNoWay, on 18 November 2012 - 03:56 AM, said:

Let's just call it the level of ease in clearing dungeons, and killing hordes, etc. Does it require lots of APM to get the job done or not? Somewhere along those lines.

--

Otherwise, rangers do seem stable as you have pointed out.

Ahh, they do this well.  Ranges are especially good at Orr events since a build that brings traps and has piercing arrows can tag mobs probably better than any other class out there.  Quests and dynamic events are really easy for rangers since they're a pet class (same for any MMO).  Also, like most pet classes in MMOs, rangers are easy to pick up and play, but harder to master.  I wouldn't say that the skill cap is as high as, say, a hunter from WoW, but since positioning and things like that can make such a difference, there's a big gap between a ranger that just sends in the pet and auto-attacks and a ranger that's truly pushing the performance of what the class can do.

[Isms]

It pains me to see how the current community views Eles. People see its nerf to evasive arcana and think that they are now incapable of providing the same benefits to the group. They don't understand the roles of combo fields in this game, or they just don't realize how easy it is to utilize these with the right compositions. I still believe ele (that knows what he's doing) is actually a must have class in any dungeon group.

TL;DR GW2 community still hasn't learned to play the game properly. Most any "best class" you list is limited to the community's currently weak understanding of game mechanics and proper compositions.

Edited by Isms, 21 November 2012 - 11:48 PM.

[Brizna]

Isms, I agree with you ele is great on paper becuse it brings the most skills to the group, if ele is a decent player chances of being in a situation ele doesn't have the right skill for are next to zero. In practice though, many times the skill itself isn't that great on its own, the great part is the combo potential, there eles have a huge problem. About 99% of the people don't know well the mechanics of ALL professions (counting myself there), thus chances they either don't know how to properly combo a skill to get the right effect or sometimes even identify what the hell is that "shiny animation" makes good combos rely on chance too often, unless the ele can trigger them himself.

[matsif]

pve only:

1) warrior.  can support well, has high dps, easy to survive, many viable builds, few bugs, and anet loves warriors so they probably won't get hit by the nerfbat too hard.
2) guardian.  not a lot of range, but even better support than warrior and can have similar dps, even more survivable, few bugs, nothing seems op
3) engineer.  imo most balanced profession in pve, tons of options for dps, support, and range builds, but nothing good for melee range.  a few bugs and some stuff needs fixing.
4) ele.  higher learning curve to figure it out, but good dps and a lot of viable builds despite evasive arcana nerf.  always hanging on the edge of being nerfed or buffed though.  I've not had an ele in my party ever who was detrimental overall.

these are all kinda tied imo:
5) ranger.  needs some work as there aren't a lot of builds, but the builds that there are work pretty well.  pretty survivable, but there are some bugs as well.  bad pet AI.  anet said they are working on them, so I doubt they are stable in that sense.
6) necro.  few viable builds and tons of bugs, but highly survivable.  minion ai is awful.  needs work.
7) mesmer.  good single target skills and dps, not so great for aoe.  good field skills for party support with time warp, feedback, etc.  

X)thief.  maybe its because I haven't had a good player for one in my party, but I have yet to play with a thief in pve who was helpful to my party as they die so often without spamming stealth.  but, I also haven't played it yet, so I labeled it as X as I really don't know where to put it in the list.