1 Profession to Rule them All

I used to be a hardcore core player. Then I had kids. Now I’m returning and have much less time to dedicate to gaming. I’ve got several 80s, and my question is if I were to pick ONE profession to get the most out of Open World, Living Story, and PvE instances, which would you recommend? Doesn’t have to be the easiest, just the most bang-for-my-buck. Options are:

GuardianEngineerMesmerRanger

I have both expansions so elite specs are a go.Thanks in advance.

My guess would be guardian.

@Seras.5702 said:I used to be a hardcore core player. Then I had kids. Now I’m returning and have much less time to dedicate to gaming. I’ve got several 80s, and my question is if I were to pick ONE profession to get the most out of Open World, Living Story, and PvE instances, which would you recommend? Doesn’t have to be the easiest, just the most bang-for-my-buck. Options are:

GuardianEngineerMesmerRanger

I have both expansions so elite specs are a go.Thanks in advance.

On meta-battle there's a staff druid build for open world. Tags a lot, and is pretty sustainable. Might try that :)

Power holosmith with sword/pistol. Honestly you can do any of them - especially now that chrono has it's self-shatter back. I'm still running core on my guardian and haven't tried either elite because I enjoy what I have so far. Still running druid on my rangers because I haven't felt inspired to change, even though I have them completely trained. I really like chrono, but I've tried mirage, I'm just sure its for me. Engi I have both a scrapper and a holo. I'll jump into situations with my holo that I would hesitate jumping into on anything but my necros.

Guardian.

It does things well.

It can clear OW content decently. It is very good for instanced content (Both Fractals and Strikes/Raids).

It can perform all roles (Power DPS, Condi DPS, Healer, Boonbot, Tank) to a high standard.

I agree with the folks telling you to run guard as your bang-for-your-buck character. Firebrands in particular can do incredibly well alone, and are highly sought-after for group content. Dragonhunter does ridiculously simple power damage, and in PvE decent damage with longbow on Dragonhunter is actually a thing if you want to range things for a bit. Core guardian is also one of the strongest core specs, and I find myself dipping back into core for both performance and fun quite often.

As for me, my first and main character is a ranger, I usually end up playing the ranger archetype first in any game I try. Ranger is also quite versatile, but I find it takes more practice, gear, and build switching to match what my guardians can do on a pretty faceroll basis. Thankfully ranger isn't pigeonholed into support as hard as it used to be in group content, thanks to excellent damage output from condi and power soulbeast, but guardian is almost always more useful in more group situations I find myself in.

Necromancer... its unbelievableThen Guardian and maybe Soulbeast Ranger or Flamethrower Engi.

Necromancer however is considered weak in pve endgame.

Out of the options you listed it's guardian. Second best alternative for ALL PvE content is Revenant. Both of wish are not only essential to endgame group content but they also have various build options to eliminate boredom.

I’m leaning heavily towards Guardian. Took my toons out into the harder HoT areas and realized very quickly that Guardian had much more survivability while still having burst damage.

I remember from playing core that it could be a bit spin-to-win with GS. Since I don’t have the hero points to train enough of the elite specs to use them yet, do FB and/or DH add more dynamic play than core? Does longbow add to that?

Also, I rolled a new Revanent. I’ve got the 80 booster but don’t want to use it till I’ve gotten more experience with him.

Can't go wrong with Guardian, but Holo/Scrapper is pretty damn solid too. Both have multiple good open-world and wvw builds.

Good to know. My main was Engi back in the day but he was very high-skill with all the button pushing. Wasn’t sure if Engi is still as demanding and if it’a desirable profession.

Out of your list, I find Engi/holo to be both incredibly fun and powerful. Someone clearly had a lot of fun designing it. I literally cackle sometimes as I'm using the light hammer to send a group of foes tumbling or the light bazooka elite skill.

I've found both Guardian and Ranger to be highly survivable, but strangely dull to play.

I'm still wrestling with my mesmer. Axe/Axe Mirage was a lot of fun, but not as strong. Staff Mirage is dull to play in comparison but incredibly survivable. I'm working on trying to get her geared and skilled up for Chronomancer. Condition builds are great for soloing really hard targets, but so frustrating in so many other situations. It takes time to ramp them up and so often some power build will jump in and kill everything before you'r dishing out the damage you're capable of. And then there's objects. Nothing quite so discouraging as killing off a bunch of enemies only to have to break a crystal or totem or the like and suddenly feel like you're trying to wear it down by rubbing it with a marshmallow.

@Seras.5702 said:I remember from playing core that it could be a bit spin-to-win with GS. Since I don’t have the hero points to train enough of the elite specs to use them yet, do FB and/or DH add more dynamic play than core? Does longbow add to that?

Dragonhunter is mainly spin-to-win with new kinds of spinning. It's good at what it does, just very similar to core power-guard gameplay in PvE.

Firebrand is a versatile spec that turns your Virtues into mini-skillbars -- so, when you activate Tome of Justice, you now have 5 special Tome skills instead of your normal weapon set you can use briefly. It's a bit like kit-swapping with engineer, but less hectic. You can play it as a 100% support build with great heals and group buffs, a supportive DPS build (either condi or power), or a reasonable condi burn build. Both Tome 1 and Axe have nice pulls you can use to cluster up enemies for maximum cleaving.

Pick the one that you like. People ask for Firebrands and Druids a lot in endgame content if that matters to you, but most specs of most classes can still play endgame content even if people aren't seeking them out. People like Mesmers for portals, group stealth, and alacrity (depends on subclass) and people like Engineers for making smoke fields and turning people into moas. And pretty much every class can DPS even if not all specs and weapons are good for it. You can't go wrong if you just pick what you like.

Ranger and here's why...It can safely pull agro while you melt it from afar. Its a meatshield and ranger down state res is super awesome. Ranger is the only clas sthat got me through all stories ive played so far with minimal deaths. TYried guardian, warrior (this was decent as well) and mesmer (which clones are fun but are not as dependable as a meatshield like a pet).

This is just my 2 cents

@"Seras.5702"I hightly recomend bomb scrapperi rate that class as SS tierhttp://gw2skills.net/editor/?PejAIJlRwgYcsGWJO2LvteA-zRIYhiXBcGVoAaZCoyZRPzI-e

At open word your one person army, able to take down any hero point, or group boss soloAt pve (dung/strikes/fractals) your one pesron army that can fight many mobs solo, and first strike to take all mobs agro on youAt live story, you can solo 1vs20 mobsAt raid you switch to holo that using same gear (berserk), but scrapper is good too (but doing 6k less dmg as traid of for insane tanknes, scrapper 31k holo 36-38k)

From op traits:->15% dmg you do change to barier (so 50% of your hp is alwyas shielded with barrier)->Big boomer : After you cause explosion (evry bomb skill or hammer 2/blast gyro) give you pasive heal->Applied Force: +200 power when you have Quickness boon, also 3s free Quickness evry 10s wheny you have +x10might stacksWith superior rune of chronomancer, you have 2s Quickness = 40-50% Quickness up time (12s with 20s cd)->Hight caliber: free +15% crit at close range (300range)->Hemotic focus: +10% crit on targets with bleedso 50%+15%+10%+20%(furry)=95% crit->No scope: 50% up time Furry,+150 ferocity while you have furry

if your tankness not inaf takeBlast shield: 1500 barier evry explosion, also +10% power convering to vitality (insted 14k hp you gona have 16k)https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blast_Shield

After that your utla tank with berserker gear

Scrapper haveEvade on skill 3block on skill 4 that do dmg as well

x2 leap, and x1blast finisher that you can combine with medic gyro/restoration field to heal yourself for more(x2 leap = 2,600 heal, x1blast= 1,300 heal,)

Also Scrapper is good dueler at pvp, can win most 1vs1, and tank for a bit 1vs3

the problem with the meta, is that it changes... about a year ago there was a power/knight guardian build that was incredibly tanky and bursty thanks to the trait that increased crit % by 50% if had a certain buff (forgot wich one). and now that trait was nerfed.

D/D Condi daredevil was pretty much unkillable when HoT came out, since then both its condition dmg and endurance regen has been nerfed.

right now, trailblazer/dire weaver is incredibly tanky and does insane burn and bleed dmg. but who knows how long will that last before they get hit with the nerf hammer

@Seras.5702 said:I used to be a hardcore core player. Then I had kids. Now I’m returning and have much less time to dedicate to gaming. I’ve got several 80s, and my question is if I were to pick ONE profession to get the most out of Open World, Living Story, and PvE instances, which would you recommend? Doesn’t have to be the easiest, just the most bang-for-my-buck. Options are:

GuardianEngineerMesmerRanger

I have both expansions so elite specs are a go.Thanks in advance.

Guardian, as it can do everything well and is basically the best class right now in game. Many will claim otherwise but you will ALWAYS find a guardian somewhere, doing something and having little issue doing it. Ranger is alright but you would likely wana run soul-beast as it seems to be, the best preforming class with the highest burst when in connection too ranger. Engie is solid, messmer right now seems to be in a meh state much like warrior....

@Ayrilana.1396 said:My guess would be guardian.

I'd suggest Guardian as well. It's my main character, too. :)

@Seras.5702 said:Good to know. My main was Engi back in the day but he was very high-skill with all the button pushing. Wasn’t sure if Engi is still as demanding and if it’a desirable profession.

Scrapper is pretty easy to play and the hammer skills are very fluid and strong. You can almost just push whatever's not on cooldown and succeed. Downside is it's not going to be 'meta' for fractals, so you might find some resistance there.

It looks like I’ll be in good shape with either my Engi or Guardian. I’ve been using my core Guardian to reaclimate myself to combat and have ventured into the first PoF zone (for mounts) with success. I’ve begun training for DH and am anxious to get deep enough in to actually equip it. I’m going to push through with him for a bit and give my Engi a shot later on.

I love my guardian, so of course that's what I suggest... B)

@Seras.5702 said:It looks like I’ll be in good shape with either my Engi or Guardian. I’ve been using my core Guardian to reaclimate myself to combat and have ventured into the first PoF zone (for mounts) with success. I’ve begun training for DH and am anxious to get deep enough in to actually equip it. I’m going to push through with him for a bit and give my Engi a shot later on.

Guardian is solid in every game mode, that was the right decision. It's been the backbone of WvW since the beginning due to stability ; in PvE it will remain the primary source of quickness. In PvP its viability sort of hinges on how much boon rip others are bringing and how much damage is output by enemies because that dictates how strong aegis is as well as the resolve virtue.

Engineer has fallen in and out of meta for PvP/WvW/PvE. I would expect if ranger, weaver, thief or some other class exceeds it in raw DPS it will remain out of PvE meta. For WvW , it's stronger in groups as a scrapper but don't think for a second that if stealth gyro and condi clears are nerfed it won't disappear. For PvP, if the damage on photon forge, grenades, hammer, and sword is nerfed let's just say you won't see any more holos or scrappers (which rely on damage for barrier).

Engi was my main in core, so I had enough hero points to adequately train Holo. I took him into the 1st HoT zone to unlock glider and really enjoyed the sword skills and photon forge mechanics, but found myself dying a lot. Not sure if it’s due to still learning the new skills or the HoT areas are that much harder (I’ve been told they are). I found Holo more fun just due to all the new skills and mechanics.

So far, while I find Guardian strong, it’s a far more boring profession to play. I’m hoping when I get enough hero points to dive deeper into DH things will change. I know longbow isn’t an ideal weapon, but I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

As for Ranger, the main reason I liked it was having a pet and using bows. It seems that to maximize it, Soulbeast removes the 2 things I like most about Ranger: pets and bows.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I recognize the Guardian is easier to play and more widely useful, while Engi seems more fun to play yet risks being underpowered and/or underutilized across game modes. (I’m not concerned with PvP at all)