A quick PvP class summary?

Hey all, I'm new to the game and want to get into PvP. I was just looking for someone to give a quick summary of each class and how they're doing currently.

Warrior - gets rolled

Guardian - very stronk

Revenant - teleporting nightcrawler god of the xmen adamantine level dps

Engineer - all saiyans use flashbang

Thief - a lot stronger than it should be

Ranger - falling out but people still love to complain about pets

Ele - a strang weird flex that spams infinite pixels and is a lot stronger than it should be with enormously passive cc

Necro - you can assign traits/utilities/stats completely randomly, use random weapons, push buttons random order, and be strong

Mesmer - needs an MLM movement started to help it with equality amongst other classes

Warrior-Decent at 1v1 and okay in a team fightGuardian-Decent all around, preferred in team fightRevenant-Great at bursting down targets and has decent mobility with shiroEngineer-Tons of decent to okay builds. Great traits all around. Holo is very stronk at dpsThief-Highest mobility and decent at ending side node fights by +1 ing the fightRanger-Great for 1v1 or small skirmishes. Great at holding side points. Okay in a team fight.Ele-Best support option rolling tempest atm. Can play an okay weaver dps build.Necro-Stand in place and spam aoe around you. Hard to kill if played rightMesmer-A bad thief. Okay in smaller fights. Meme one shot build. Fun to play

Way I see PvP atm as a mid-level player:

Rankings: Balanced - Good - Strong

Warrior - Balanced. Good telegraphs. Fun to fight.Guardian - Good. Big AoE node spam offender, but sustain nerfs hit it hard. Can get bullied.Revenant - Strong - Best roamer alongside thief. Has a lot of useful tools under its belt.

Ranger - Balanced. Pet nerf and Amulet removal toned it down a lot. Still annoys inexperienced players.Sneaky Sneaks - Good. Best Roamer in the game, but it has weaknesses. Good ones still carry games.Engineer - Strong. Holo melts faces. Scrapper is underrated. Core still sucks.

Necro - Strong. Out of all classes, lowest effort for highest reward. However, they are managable.Elementalist - Good. Aurashare tempest has a comfortable spot in the meta. Weaver is in a balanced state after the nerfs.
Mesmer - Balanced. Most underrated class in the game. One dodge mirage is a lot better than people give it credit for. Chrono is still a meme, but Split second changes are spicy.

Who needs nerfs?

Engineer. EE and Flashbang are causing massive frustration atm. Holo should generate less passive might in PvP.

Rev. Shave the damage a bit, but also fix the bugs. Especially Unrelenting Assault not latching and Staff 5's clunkiness.

tempest. Yes, advocating nerfs for my own class. Res Glyph + Mistform is cheesy. It has very little counterplay. Maybe make shocking aura stun all foes in a 180 radius after you hit it, but with a brief delay like pyromancer's puissance. Stun no longer hits evading foes, but also undo the mess that is Obsidian Flesh.

Who needs buffs?

Core ele. Staff needs a lot of love. D/D is arguably in the Weak category. Give it the Core rev treatment.Core Engi. While it's elite specs are thriving, core engi struggles to find a niche for itself. Core should be able to equip a kit as a weapon swap and/or gain stronger kits baselineDruid. It sees play as a condi bunker, but it's supportive capabilities are still underutilized. It wouldn't break the game if staff gained a bit of its damage back..Chrono. Needs another rework tbh

Warrior: A class of chadsEvery other class: Bunch of yak herders.

Condi mirage vs condi p/d thief, for side laning/+1ing? Newish, can't seem to tell which is better.

Shatter mesmer viable? Daredevil worth sidelaning with?

Warrior: Pretty trash tier atm. Outdone at the only job they're good at by holo or FB. Sort of viable if you're really sweaty at it.

Guardian: Never not viable but middle of the pack right now. FB still brings a lot to the table.

Revenant: Were moving back into a mobility/power meta and PRev is going to reign supreme again imo. Condi Rev is still decent but a lot less oppressive than last few patches.

Ranger: Fell off pretty hard. They've been reduced to condi trap builds and that's pretty bad for high tier play. Anet just won't let this class be a ranged glass DPS and that's the only role isn't not absolute cancer as when it's viable.

Thief: Mobility will always be viable but if it can 1v1 it will be probably nerfed and rightly so imo. Mobility is the trade off.

Engineer: Top of the meta atm. CMC lets overperforming classes fester for a long time and this one is no exception. Everything he has nerfed about it has not changed the too strong mechanics available to it. It will probably get gutted soon imo.

Elementalist: Strongest support atm. Aura spam and short CD rez skill makes it a tough contender if you hate enjoying your time as daddy necro's healbot. Alternatively you can play the Weaver LR build but you're squishy and are not the best at any role. You're not fun to fight though. +1 Emotional Damage.

Necromancer: King of the team fights as it should be. Any spec of it is fairly viable with Reaper bring the best imo. Lich autos hit too hard but that's about it. Tough to play in high tier because everyone knows to focus you. Pretty good state all around and I hope it stays this way.

Mesmer: In the trash with warrior but more for reasons of people hating it's mechanics than anything else. Still viable if you get sweaty enough. They should do large reworks to the class but they never will or even if they did it might come out worse. Would probably see more play of they buffed portal.

Should mention this is NA

Warrior: If you are a literal god on this class, you can go to legendary with it. Oh also there is a heal variant now apparently.Guardian: Spam aoe on nodeRevenant: Defensive skills hit for 3k-4k, and like necromancer you can take anything you want and do good.

Ranger: It's a bunker that can survive +1, that's all. Oh and meme oneshots.Thief: You basically need 1 thief per team.Engineer: Deals damage, like, a TON of damage.

Necromancer: Trevor is spot on, you can take random stuff and do good.Elementalist: You spam cc or you spam heals, whichever spam you prefer.Mesmer: It has a huge build variety for ranked right now but all of them are mediocre.

warrior: meh but workable if you super want it, berserker still badrev: kinda godish if played with half a brain on or a quarter of it for some buildsguardian: it's okay

ranger: meh but workable if you super want it, druid still badthief: someone at anet mains it so pretty god (at what it does)engi: someone at anet mains it so pretty god

necro: someone at anet mains it so pretty godele: god support, okay dpsmesmer: play another class bc this one does nothing good/better than others, chrono still bad (lol)

All of the classes can PvP. I've heard some of the specs sometimes get broken and can't PvP, and others aren't intended for PvP, but that's just hearsay, so play what you want. It's not like if you decide to make a PvP druid and find it doesn't work at all you'll get locked into it. One of the things about games is people are always finding new ways to play them, and that's really a lot of the fun in my opinion. Of course, sometimes the tried and true way is also the best way. Something that helps is to ask around to see if anyone is doing anything like what you want instead of just starting from scratch.

@"Seb De Tyra.3421" said:Hey all, I'm new to the game and want to get into PvP. I was just looking for someone to give a quick summary of each class and how they're doing currently.You could basically have asked "What class do you main?" to people.

Just look at your first answer:

@"Trevor Boyer.6524" said:

1. Warrior - gets rolled
2. Guardian - very stronk
3. Revenant - teleporting nightcrawler god of the xmen adamantine level dps
4. Engineer - all saiyans use flashbang
5. Thief - a lot stronger than it should be
6. Ranger - falling out but people still love to complain about pets
7. Ele - a strang weird flex that spams infinite pixels and is a lot stronger than it should be with enormously passive cc
8. Necro - you can assign traits/utilities/stats completely randomly, use random weapons, push buttons random order, and be strong
9. Mesmer - needs an MLM movement started to help it with equality amongst other classesWhat do you think which class Trevor mains?

Hint: It's not guardian, revenant, engineer, thief, ele, necro ... but a class that can counter warrior with range and mobility no matter how much buffs warrior will ever get. So it won't hurt him to name (just because otherwise you will lose credit with your audience) this specific class as "not overpowered in some way".

And mesmer: well... these days you can't name mesmer as anything else than underpowered, because you are asking for controversy if you don't, which is annoying.

@KrHome.1920 said:

@"Seb De Tyra.3421" said:Hey all, I'm new to the game and want to get into PvP. I was just looking for someone to give a quick summary of each class and how they're doing currently.You could basically have asked "What class do you main?" to people.

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

1. Warrior - gets rolled
2. Guardian - very stronk
3. Revenant - teleporting nightcrawler god of the xmen adamantine level dps
4. Engineer - all saiyans use flashbang
5. Thief - a lot stronger than it should be
6. Ranger - falling out but people still love to complain about pets
7. Ele - a strang weird flex that spams infinite pixels and is a lot stronger than it should be with enormously passive cc
8. Necro - you can assign traits/utilities/stats completely randomly, use random weapons, push buttons random order, and be strong
9. Mesmer - needs an MLM movement started to help it with equality amongst other classesWhat do you think which class Trevor mains?

Uhhh pre-feb ranger lost to war

@Tycura.1982 said:

@KrHome.1920 said:

@"Seb De Tyra.3421" said:Hey all, I'm new to the game and want to get into PvP. I was just looking for someone to give a quick summary of each class and how they're doing currently.You could basically have asked "What class do you main?" to people.

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

1. Warrior - gets rolled
2. Guardian - very stronk
3. Revenant - teleporting nightcrawler god of the xmen adamantine level dps
4. Engineer - all saiyans use flashbang
5. Thief - a lot stronger than it should be
6. Ranger - falling out but people still love to complain about pets
7. Ele - a strang weird flex that spams infinite pixels and is a lot stronger than it should be with enormously passive cc
8. Necro - you can assign traits/utilities/stats completely randomly, use random weapons, push buttons random order, and be strong
9. Mesmer - needs an MLM movement started to help it with equality amongst other classesWhat do you think which class Trevor mains?

@Tycura.1982 said:Uhhh pre-feb ranger lost to war

One of the only times I agree with KrHome, ranger always won unless there were other factors.

@Tayga.3192 said:

@Tycura.1982 said:Uhhh pre-feb ranger lost to war

Weren't spellbreaker/weaver picked more in tournaments than ranger?

@aymnad.9023 said:Weren't spellbreaker/weaver picked more in tournaments than ranger?

Current cmirage destroyed prenerf crev 1v1 in almost any situation. Why didn't we see any cmirages in MOTA or mATs?

@Tayga.3192 said:

@aymnad.9023 said:Weren't spellbreaker/weaver picked more in tournaments than ranger?

Because teams include other professions / builds they have a hard time dealing with? War / ranger battles would have most likely happened on the side node. Spellbreaker was a stronger pick there as far as I remember.

@KrHome.1920 said:

@Tycura.1982 said:

@KrHome.1920 said:

@"Seb De Tyra.3421" said:Hey all, I'm new to the game and want to get into PvP. I was just looking for someone to give a quick summary of each class and how they're doing currently.You could basically have asked "What class do you main?" to people.

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

1. Warrior - gets rolled
2. Guardian - very stronk
3. Revenant - teleporting nightcrawler god of the xmen adamantine level dps
4. Engineer - all saiyans use flashbang
5. Thief - a lot stronger than it should be
6. Ranger - falling out but people still love to complain about pets
7. Ele - a strang weird flex that spams infinite pixels and is a lot stronger than it should be with enormously passive cc
8. Necro - you can assign traits/utilities/stats completely randomly, use random weapons, push buttons random order, and be strong
9. Mesmer - needs an MLM movement started to help it with equality amongst other classesWhat do you think which class Trevor mains?

Why even come @ me when everyone who made a list said the same thing, that war/range/mes was on the weak end?

Ranger is not beating War/Spellbreaker right now. That's bologna. I don't think you're quite understanding what happened to this match up when Ranger lost a ton of stab access & uptime after the GREAT nerf patch. It's an equal match up at worst in most cases nowadays. However Warrior/Spellbreaker can easy tweak its build to deal with a particular Ranger before a match, and due to this War/Spellbreaker technically light counters Ranger. It's very easily for War/Spellbreaker to swap a couple things around without messing with his build much, and it can counter a targeted Ranger build very hard.

Examples:

• A glass cannon Soulbeast? No prob = Run glass cannon Spellbreaker, it counters glass cannon Soulbeast
• A Core Ranger Side Node? No prob = Run extra CC and/or boon removal to keep the prot/regen off so it can't heal
• A Druid or some Condi variant? No prob = Run something more sustainy like Vaans runs and the War will out-sustain and win in time

@Tayga.3192 said:

@Tycura.1982 said:Uhhh pre-feb ranger lost to war

Yeah, bellow the bell curve probably, where Ranger is always strong and people don't know how to play War. The community has gone over this several times in several threads already. Things literally "play out differently" at P2+ and AT levels of play. Ranger builds keep getting nerfed due to bell curve complaints and then they suck in higher tiered play.

@aymnad.9023 said:

@Tayga.3192 said:

@Tycura.1982 said:Uhhh pre-feb ranger lost to war

No idea what's going on in EU, but lately in NA I am the only Ranger that I ever see in ATs. Of course that statement isn't counting G1 casuals who join ATs with any and all possible build structures. When I say I'm the only Ranger playing in NA ATs right now, I mean players who are like P1+.

@"Trevor Boyer.6524" said:Yeah, bellow the bell curve probably, where Ranger is always strong and people don't know how to play War. The community has gone over this several times in several threads already. Things literally "play out differently" at P2+ and AT levels of play. Ranger builds keep getting nerfed due to bell curve complaints and then they suck in higher tiered play.

I am talking about p3 level of play

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

Ranger is not beating War/Spellbreaker right now. That's bologna. I don't think you're quite understanding what happened to this match up when Ranger lost a ton of stab access & uptime after the GREAT nerf patch. It's an equal match up at worst in most cases nowadays. However Warrior/Spellbreaker can easy tweak its build to deal with a particular Ranger before a match, and due to this War/Spellbreaker technically light counters Ranger. It's very easily for War/Spellbreaker to swap a couple things around without messing with his build much, and it can counter a targeted Ranger build very hard.

Examples:

• A glass cannon Soulbeast? No prob = Run glass cannon Spellbreaker, it counters glass cannon Soulbeast
• A Core Ranger Side Node? No prob = Run extra CC and/or boon removal to keep the prot/regen off so it can't heal
• A Druid or some Condi variant? No prob = Run something more sustainy like Vaans runs and the War will out-sustain and win in time

@Tayga.3192 said:

@"Tycura.1982" said:Uhhh pre-feb ranger lost to war

Ranger is a hardcounter to Warrior btw.

@Tharan.9085 said:

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

Ranger is not beating War/Spellbreaker right now. That's bologna. I don't think you're quite understanding what happened to this match up when Ranger lost a ton of stab access & uptime after the GREAT nerf patch. It's an equal match up at worst in most cases nowadays. However Warrior/Spellbreaker can easy tweak its build to deal with a particular Ranger before a match, and due to this War/Spellbreaker technically light counters Ranger. It's very easily for War/Spellbreaker to swap a couple things around without messing with his build much, and it can counter a targeted Ranger build very hard.

Examples:

• A glass cannon Soulbeast? No prob = Run glass cannon Spellbreaker, it counters glass cannon Soulbeast
• A Core Ranger Side Node? No prob = Run extra CC and/or boon removal to keep the prot/regen off so it can't heal
• A Druid or some Condi variant? No prob = Run something more sustainy like Vaans runs and the War will out-sustain and win in time

@Tayga.3192 said:

@"Tycura.1982" said:Uhhh pre-feb ranger lost to war

You're not listening.

Some Ranger builds can counter certain War builds. But some War builds counter certain Ranger builds.

The difference is that the War can tweak for counter with only a couple changes and it won't effect his performance vs. other classes/builds so much in that match. Ranger on the other hand, has to drastically alter its build to be able to deal with a War build that it knows it's going to struggle against, which can greatly effect its performance in a match vs. other classes/builds. In the game of swap swap for counters, War wins. I mean the difference between a Core Ranger side node and a Soulbeast + is an entire different job role. So a Ranger isn't simply tweaking a couple things on its build, it has to alter its entire team comp to attempt to work around a War player who is wise enough to play counters.

Come on boys, did you not learn anything from 2v2s and 3v3s after build templates were added? We're far past the days of comparing a single class meta vs. a single class meta. When comparing class/build vs. class/build, swapping needs to be considered in 2020. It is very real, and this is the game being played in higher tiers. When you want to say: "How does Spellbreaker compare to such and such" you have to consider that the guy on that Spellbreaker isn't running the same exact build over the course of 100 games played. If he's good, he'll be swapping and tweaking for the situation in each match, possibly even running War or Berserker in some situations where he knows he can get away with it for a weird flex counter type situation.

^ And that's what we're looking at which is, Ranger/Druid/Soulbeast as a whole class vs. War/Berserk/Spellbreaker as a whole class. These balance discussions are no longer as simple as pre-template pre-2s&3s comparisons.

Elementalist - The class that could become something great, but it became just another part of trinity. Tempest, the greatest of all, master of Winds and Storms, created like 30minutes before HoT release, the best Healbot you could ask for, the disappointment. Weaver, a specializations that was a promise for better future with mixing of Elements to gain greater heights of mastery, became just another evadebot with limited range as typical mage I dare to say.Engineer - Loved by many, the pianist to say the least, the true master of keyboard, the one that have more weapon kits, than actual weapons. The Scrapper, oh the great, specialization that has long lost it's true purpose because of reworks and Holosmith. If you could ask for everything to be delivered in only one package, it could be only Holosmith, the shiniest of them all, with enough tools to be worth calling "Jack of all trades and master of all".Guardian - The great protector and arguably the most balanced profession of them all until release of elite specializations. Dragonhunter, the hunter which traps deal more damage than actual bow skills. The Firebrand, the one that should bring something great and new to master, yet the only thing it brought was just pure dissappointment and false "depth" to the Guardian itself.Mesmer - Class that plays with minds, the greatest illusionist, the most skilled, or so they believe themselves. Once they were great to use and play, now they're just another miserable existence. The only class that posses two specializations that shouldn't even be released considering how broken they are from the very design level. Chronomancer, by many believed to be master of time, the one that could stop you in your tracks before you even made your first move, yet in reality they just double their spammability x2. Mirage, a specialization that denies the most basic concept of the game and becomes one of the most annoying things to fight.Necromancer - Known as a healer that was always late to the parties, the child that is bullied by pretty much everything, justified though, considering how unpleasant it is to fight all diseases it can produce. Capable of summoning dead friends, which of most of the time are better off dead. You could even say it's M, considering it likes to hurt themselves. Arguably, this class posses "true" elite specializations that actually change how you play your class. Reaper, the fan of grim reapers, running around waving it's scythe for few seconds to kill, then just die because it tripped on some grass. Scourge, self-proclaimed support, which makes your opponents lose will to fight, because of constant yellow numbers that pops over your head when you 'take' damage.Ranger - The one that truly loves animals and is capable to befriend them, the one that can shot fruther away than it's stated in tooltips, the one that can posses the most overstacked utility skills through traits, the buzzing mosquito. Druid, the specialization of wonders, a celestial being that was created to heal others, the one with most annoying traits to deal with, the one that sits in shadows, for now. Soulbeast, when your friends stop being your friends and become lovers and you decide to become one with them. You could ask: does it brings something fresh to the table? The answer is: yes, it does, more dmg%modifiers...Revenant - The real bad boy of all classes, the one gain it's power through the mists, or so they say. In reality it's an akward mix of Guardian/Thief/Elementalist/Warrior, a class without identity, it doesn't exist without specializations. Arguably, it posses the most beatfiful underwater animations. Herald, for few years it was the real name of class know as Revenant, you could say that Revenant was created based on Herald. The greatest boon generator in the game. Renegade, a specialization which AoEs radius would put to shame all mages combined together, the one that can cover whole points to make you quit this game faster.Thief - The most hated class in the game for being that small dog that always bark at you and only bites when it's certain it can get away with it. Daredevil, the specialization that was created to make sure, these pups will always run away from any losing encounter and sometimes deal massive damage, from evasion skills. Deadeye, the greatest joke in the game, the most annoying thing to fight, right after Mirage. Let's not forget about the greatest elite skill in the game that it posses: a counter to a counter. 11/9.Warrior - The big boi that only needed to smash keyboard to smash enemies, lately it requires a bit more brain, but still can smash for high numbers if RNGesus allows. Berserker, idea great, implementation bad, but it would be a disaster if it was balanced by their warrior mains. Spellbreaker, a specialization that is a step back from design standpoint, it should be the one that strips boons, but it was given another smash button with big damage at the beginning.

@"Trevor Boyer.6524" said:No idea what's going on in EU, but lately in NA I am the only Ranger that I ever see in ATs. Of course that statement isn't counting G1 casuals who join ATs with any and all possible build structures. When I say I'm the only Ranger playing in NA ATs right now, I mean players who are like P1+.

Actually I was referring to the "pre-feb ranger was already winning against war". War brings more to its team so we will slowly get back there. Right now I am now trying a different profession / build every season because I do not enjoy ranger current state.It took me some time to dig up this old thread because I forgot I answered in it. I went over quite a few pages to find it :)https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/1142758

@Seb De Tyra.3421 said:Hey all, I'm new to the game and want to get into PvP. I was just looking for someone to give a quick summary of each class and how they're doing currently.

Warrior - Core is awful. Berserker is undertuned and Spellbreaker is close to balanced but needs some love. Warrior, however, has a high skill caps so if you build correctly and play very well they are serviceable. Needs a slight buff to it's sustain for the class to do what it says on the tin.

Guardian - Overall I'd say its balanced. Firebrand still offers great support to any team comp and Dragonhunter feels good to play at the moment. I've also seen some pretty cool hammer builds on Core. Overall, the class feels like it does what its supposed to do, but it isn't oppressive.

Revenant - Power Shiro has a high skill cap, but may be slightly overtuned damage wise at the moment in the hands of the right player. Mallyx has a much lower skill cap and is mostly balanced I'd say. If anything, a slight damage nerf to Shiro builds may be appropriate.

Ranger - Core power is balanced. Soulbeast is undertuned and... whats that other one again? Oh yeah, Druid. I nearly forgot it existed and I think Anet may have as well... I honestly don't know you fix Druid at this point.

Thief - Deadeye and Daredevil are both undertuned and need some love. Core is very overtuned. Its mostly a few offending blind skills that are making Core so oppressive, but once Anet guts those Core will likely suck as it usually does.

Engineer - Core is terrible, borderline unplayable. I'd argue Scapper is mostly balanced and does what its supposed to do. Holo, however, is clearly overpowered and will need significant nerfs to either its damage or its mobility to be brought into line.

Necromancer - Reaper is another one of the main offenders at the moment. Its not as busted as Holo, but it could use a small trim on its damage or CC capabilities. Core is a very lower skill cap and slightly over tuned, and (never thought I'd say this) Scourge might be the worst class in the game.

Elementalist - Core is unplayable as per usual. Auramancer is the best support in the game, but I'm not sure if it needs to be nerfed or other support specs like Firebrand and and Druid need to be buffed. Weaver is balanced or maybe slightly undertuned. Again, its a class with a pretty high skill cap so in the hands of the right player it can be quite effective.

Mesmer - Uh, yeah... Just don't play it right now. Worst class in the game. Balanced team must have fired all their Mesmer players.

Dunno now, but pre Feb, SB has no chance against ranger, unless ranger insists on fighting on the point.

Warriors were not doing well pre Feb, mirage, FB and weaver could easily pummel them. I used to play sage FB and I could out sustain and out damage much better than SB could. And I had very soft counters. Ironically, warrior is stronger solo now, but the low damage makes them a bad option most of the time.

There is little that works nowadays, and you should stick to it.

OP if you multiclass play necro, engi or rev. Ele and thief for support and decap.

If not, guardian and ranger are acceptable, if you stick to the meta builds.

Do not play warrior or Mesmer. Do not play non meta builds. You will not have a good time if you do.