[Study Results] Current Class Rankings for Roaming and 1v1s

[oscuro.9720]

Hello everyone! I recently ran a poll on here (and some discords) to collect your thoughts on the rankings of the classes for roaming and 1v1s. I am here today with the results!

Well then, here's the data:

Data

Respondents: 43Average class ranking for roaming:(sorted best to worst)

1. Thief: 3.44
2. Ranger: 3.94
3. Revenant: 4.33
4. Engineer: 4.65
5. Necro (Tie!): 5.5
6. Guardian(Tie!): 5.5
7. Mesmer: 5.65
8. Elementalist: 5.91
9. Warrior: 6.09

Average class ranking for 1v1:(sorted best to worst)

1. Thief: 3.59
2. Revenant: 4.21
3. Ranger: 4.35
4. Engineer: 4.7
5. Guardian: 5.29
6. Necromancer: 5.38
7. Elementalist: 5.62
8. Mesmer: 5.79
9. Warrior: 6.06

Discussion

There are some discernable tiers based on the results of the provided data;S Tier - ThiefThief came in first resoundingly, with over half the respondents ranking thief the strongest class at both roaming and 1v1s. This should come as no surprise, as thief dominates the game in mobility and stomp security, two critical components of roaming, while having good burst, a high ceiling, and being a hard counter for several popular classes. Considering roaming is basically the only role thief fills well, it makes sense they come in first.

A Tier - Ranger, Revenant, and EngineerThe second tier could be defined as the classes that are competent at everything. Simply put, these are the classes that are good at small group or solo right now. These classes all have good sustain, mobility, burst, and mitigation. This gives them both good dueling potential as well as the ability to take on multiple opponents more easily than the lower classes. Each of these classes ranked near each other and are separated from lower classes by a sizeable margin. With the strength of certain builds on each of these classes, they, along with thief, are the roaming meta currently.

B Tier - Guardian and NecromancerB tier classes are not bad, but are lacking a little something. In fact, that something is very clear; mobility. Each of these classes has good sustain, burst, and cleave, but are rather slow and hindered by long cooldowns. In good hands, they can be effective at roaming, but generally rely on a group to really shine. Their in-combat mobility is not bad, but when put in a poor situation (i.e. outnumbered), most players will be stuck with no escape when playing these classes.

C Tier - Elementalist and MesmerC tier classes are lacking more than just a little. While each has their own strengths, the amount of other categories they have to sacrifice (sustain, mobility, etc.) to get to a competitive level of damage causes them to require an experienced and competent player. Simply put, these classes are outperformed in whatever they do by the classes above them.

D tier - WarriorLike thief was voted first by over half of respondents, warrior was voted last by over half of the respondents. Most of the other responses were second worst, so it didn't get much better. Warrior is bad. The only thing warrior has is long stuns. However, its low sustain, mediocre burst, low sustained damage, average mobility, and long, obvious animations make it worse than every other class. It is outperformed by most classes on this list at everything.

There you have it. The rankings came in around where I expected them to with very little deviation. Disagree? Don't like how I described your class? Are you one of the wierdos who put thief last or warrior first? Feel free to comment below :smile:

[Arheundel.6451]

Fully agree with the list

[Grand Marshal.4098]

Really enjoyed taking part on this poll and I also agree with the list!

[Dawdler.8521]

@oscuro.9720 said:The only thing warrior has is long stuns. However, its low sustain, mediocre burst, low sustained damage, average mobility, and long, obvious animations make it worse than every other class.Lol to all those things. Well except the stun part, thats true.

[Justine.6351]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@oscuro.9720 said:The only thing warrior has is long stuns. However, its low sustain, mediocre burst, low sustained damage, average mobility, and long, obvious animations make it worse than every other class.Lol to all those things. Well except the stun part, thats true.

Warrior is hugely telegraphed.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

@oscuro.9720 said:D tier - WarriorLike thief was voted first by over half of respondents, warrior was voted last by over half of the respondents. Most of the other responses were second worst, so it didn't get much better. Warrior is bad. The only thing warrior has is long stuns. However, its low sustain, mediocre burst, low sustained damage, average mobility, and long, obvious animations make it worse than every other class. It is outperformed by most classes on this list at everything.

Wait a minute...if half voted warrior first and then voted last by the other half wouldn't that put Warrior as more of a C+ tier? I kill way to many of those other classes on my warrior, so pardon my disconnect here.

For it to be D tier you wouldn't have had so many people vote for it to be first.

• Warrior sustain can be very high if you build for it, like +25k healing in one skill and not even the actual heal skill.
• GS+Dagger/Shield or GS+Sword/Shield are highly mobile sets and are what most people run,. Even without a second set Greatsword+Bulls Charge can cover 2400 range, which is hardly even average mobility considering they do not require a target.
• Burst is lower in this awful meta sure, but you can still one shot people with the right builds so it isn't fair to consider it mediocre. I mean I've almost one shot Thieves with Eviscerate using Sentinel stats during this meta. The sustained damage is still fairly good.

If these weren't true I wouldn't be getting the amount of kills on my warrior that I do. Grant it, it could be that I encounter only bad players, but I highly doubt that.

I do agree that the animations are overly long for their payoffs though... Those should be fixed, or at least change Body Blow to do power damage instead of bleeds.

[TheOneWhoSighs.7513]

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

@oscuro.9720 said:

D tier - Warrior

Like thief was voted first by over half of respondents, warrior was voted last by over half of the respondents. Most of the other responses were second worst, so it didn't get much better. Warrior is bad. The only thing warrior has is long stuns. However, its low sustain, mediocre burst, low sustained damage, average mobility, and long, obvious animations make it worse than every other class. It is outperformed by most classes on this list at everything.

Wait a minute...if half voted warrior first and then voted last by the other half wouldn't that put Warrior as more of a C+ tier? I kill way to many of those other classes on my warrior, so pardon my disconnect here.

You misread it. Thief was voted first by over half of the respondents. Warrior was not.

@oscuro.9720 said:Warrior is bad. The only thing warrior has is long stuns.

And all of those stuns are highly telegraphed & hit like a wet noodle. Nothing like hitting hammer 5 and doing a crit for 7 damage.

[Dawdler.8521]

@"Lan Deathrider.5910" said:

• Burst is lower in this awful meta sure, but you can still one shot people with the right builds so it isn't fair to consider it mediocre. I mean I've almost one shot Thieves with Eviscerate using Sentinel stats during this meta. The sustained damage is still fairly good.I'm terrible at warrior and when I was harassing a zerg the other day on garri lord (like 5v40), a big stronk dps scrapper decided he was going after me. I wasnt really doing much against the zerg (rifle vs basicly range immune zerg) but as soon as he came into melee range I flipped to axe/axe and he died in seconds, lol. Pretty sure he was as surprised as I was. Almost 300% crit damage kind of hurt.

Either way this list misrepresent the classes because this description for "A tier" classes - "These classes all have good sustain, mobility, burst, and mitigation" - literally describe all classes on their roaming builds.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

@TheOneWhoSighs.7513 said:

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

@oscuro.9720 said:

D tier - Warrior

Like thief was voted first by over half of respondents, warrior was voted last by over half of the respondents. Most of the other responses were second worst, so it didn't get much better. Warrior is bad. The only thing warrior has is long stuns. However, its low sustain, mediocre burst, low sustained damage, average mobility, and long, obvious animations make it worse than every other class. It is outperformed by most classes on this list at everything.

Wait a minute...if half voted warrior first and then voted last by the other half wouldn't that put Warrior as more of a C+ tier? I kill way to many of those other classes on my warrior, so pardon my disconnect here.

You misread it. Thief was voted first by over half of the respondents. Warrior was not.You are right, I did misread that part. My critiques are all still valid. Since the reasoning given does not reflect my experiences roaming as a warrior.

@oscuro.9720 said:Warrior is bad. The only thing warrior has is long stuns.

And all of those stuns are highly telegraphed & hit like a wet noodle. Nothing like hitting hammer 5 and doing a crit for 7 damage.They seriously need to revisit that BS...

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

• Burst is lower in this awful meta sure, but you can still one shot people with the right builds so it isn't fair to consider it mediocre. I mean I've almost one shot Thieves with Eviscerate using Sentinel stats during this meta. The sustained damage is still fairly good.I'm terrible at warrior and when I was harassing a zerg the other day on garri lord (like 5v40), a big stronk dps scrapper decided he was going after me. I wasnt really doing much against the zerg (rifle vs basicly range immune zerg) but as soon as he came into melee range I flipped to axe/axe and he died in seconds, lol. Pretty sure he was as surprised as I was. Almost 300% crit damage kind of hurt.

Either way this list misrepresent the classes because this description for "A tier" classes -

"These classes all have good sustain, mobility, burst, and mitigation"

- literally describe

all

classes on their roaming builds.

I bet you had Warrior's Cunning didn't you? It's always fun to instagib scrappers with that trait. Axe/Axe is part of why I take these claims of mediocre burst damage and low sustained damage as utter garbage. Axe/Axe even on non glass setup is still big D dps.

[Widmo.3186]

Overall I agree. My opinion is that teef should be kinda lower in terms of pure 1v1, and Im not so sure with warrior on the last place. In good hands, warri could be B-tier, guard/necro/ele A-tier and ranger S-tier, but its about statistically average, so kinda okay-ish. Nice poll and project

[TheOneWhoSighs.7513]

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

@TheOneWhoSighs.7513 said:

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

@oscuro.9720 said:

D tier - Warrior

Like thief was voted first by over half of respondents, warrior was voted last by over half of the respondents. Most of the other responses were second worst, so it didn't get much better. Warrior is bad. The only thing warrior has is long stuns. However, its low sustain, mediocre burst, low sustained damage, average mobility, and long, obvious animations make it worse than every other class. It is outperformed by most classes on this list at everything.

Wait a minute...if half voted warrior first and then voted last by the other half wouldn't that put Warrior as more of a C+ tier? I kill way to many of those other classes on my warrior, so pardon my disconnect here.

You misread it. Thief was voted first by over half of the respondents. Warrior was not.You are right, I did misread that part. My critiques are all still valid. Since the reasoning given does not reflect my experiences roaming as a warrior.

Yeah, not much of a warrior player myself. Warrior seems to have good damage. Problem in my mind with roaming is that your ability to stick to a lot of classes is going to be pretty bad. As well, other's ability to burst from afar puts you in a nasty spot.

But that all comes with the caveat that most players in WvW are not good at fighting on small scale. So there's plenty of people to stab regardless of how good/bad your class is.

@oscuro.9720 said:Warrior is bad. The only thing warrior has is long stuns.

And all of those stuns are highly telegraphed & hit like a wet noodle. Nothing like hitting hammer 5 and doing a crit for 7 damage.They seriously need to revisit that BS...

They won't, lol. ANet's only answer to anything that they feel is power creeped is either to tweak it ever so slightly so that you can't even tell they touched it. Or to press the delete key.

You know. Like they did for the water PvP map, 70% of stat sets in SPvP, a plethora of traits on every class that used to be pretty powerful but now have ridiculous things like 240 second cool downs.

The devs kinda just gave up on balancing very early on. I wouldn't be surprised if we see one day where WvW has SPvP style stat sets.

[Hadi.3167]

Meh. ....

[Gotejjeken.1267]

I think this is less of a roaming poll and more of a ganking one. Thieves and SBs (assuming glass ones) are very good at ganking or +1'ing but if they run into a bunker well the SB usually loses and the thief runs. Same holds true if they run into multiple people. Of course they are also the two most complained about on the forums by pepole that think 'warclaw = invincible' so they'd rank highly in this poll.

If you meet actually good roamers / duelers, a good tempest / reaper / berserker can ruin your day pretty quick.

[Hadi.3167]

To be fair though, Guild Wars 2 has never been balanced around 1 v 1 combat. That is something players have come up with not Developers. So some builds / game play styles are going to vary based on the player not because of the development or the decisions the Devs made.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

@TheOneWhoSighs.7513 said:

Yeah, not much of a warrior player myself. Warrior seems to have good damage. Problem in my mind with roaming is that your ability to stick to a lot of classes is going to be pretty bad. As well, other's ability to burst from afar puts you in a nasty spot.That is why Rifle surprises people. No running away from me. That and pocket gunflames are always fun.But that all comes with the caveat that most players in WvW are not good at fighting on small scale. So there's plenty of people to stab regardless of how good/bad your class is.Tell me about it. I wrecked a core necro who should have kept me fear locked yesterday. Never had to dodge or touch my heal skill. Salty s.ob. mailed me some hilarious trash talk given how bad they were.

They won't, lol. ANet's only answer to anything that they feel is power creeped is either to tweak it ever so slightly so that you can't even tell they touched it. Or to press the delete key.

You know. Like they did for the water PvP map, 70% of stat sets in SPvP, a plethora of traits on every class that used to be pretty powerful but now have ridiculous things like 240 second cool downs.

The devs kinda just gave up on balancing very early on. I wouldn't be surprised if we see one day where WvW has SPvP style stat sets.

I don't see WvW getting PvP style sets ever. I can see the Devs turning Body Blow into Power damage instead of bleeds though.

[Kovu.7560]

@Gotejjeken.1267 said:I think this is less of a roaming poll and more of a ganking one. Thieves and SBs (assuming glass ones) are very good at ganking or +1'ing but if they run into a bunker well the SB usually loses and the thief runs. Same holds true if they run into multiple people. Of course they are also the two most complained about on the forums by pepole that think 'warclaw = invincible' so they'd rank highly in this poll.

If you meet actually good roamers / duelers, a good tempest / reaper / berserker can ruin your day pretty quick.

Pretty much this. Lets not pretend thieves and rangers are universal gods in 1v1 scenarios, plenty of builds on all of the other professions can deal with them just fine. I'd personally swap mesmer and necro around, as well, in the context of roaming and 1v1s. It ultimately boils down to what builds you choose to play on each profession and what their inherent strengths and weaknesses are.

For the record I voted engi as the best roamer/1v1er as they have access to a slew of practically everything (healing, quickness, stealth, stupid superspeed uptime, leaps, stuns, dazes, blocks/reflects/invulns, tons of cleaning, boon access, practically every field with the ability to blast multiple times on their own) all on relatively low cooldowns (15~25s) and at least 2/3rd of the above can be worked into a single build. In a straight race across the map with everyone moving at in-combat speed a thief spec'd for teleport-spam would probably win, but a scrapper or holo wouldn't be far behind, well ahead of ranger/mesmer/warrior etc.

~ Kovu

[Arheundel.6451]

As somebody with multiple invested mains: ranger -guardian -warrior -ele and necro I gladly repeat what I have stated: the list is 100% correct. Playing ranger compared to the rest of my other mains...I feel like god mode when roaming, it does well in small skirmish too with either soulbeast (supportish custom build..does its job family enough) or druid; of my other main...warrior is, without doubt, the weakest quickly followed by ele, with which I can yes win some 1v1 given enough time and situation which rarely happens, despite running power stats ( no condi BS ) I can rarely hit the 5k mark without meticulous set up beforehand and my escape options are limited to lighting flash but...given how even reapers can easily catch up...dunno what's even the point in using it most of the time.

The main reasons behind all of this is that the bottom professions have to sacrifice almost everything to have either damage or sustain...on ranger, necro I can have it all, likewise on thief(which I don't play but got hundreds of fights against this class after 8 years) and engineer is the same story. Guardian has no mobility otherwise yes it would be up there with the rest....it does good 1v1 too...better than ele in most instances thx to teleports and better traits overall.

Mesmer and Revenant are like the middle of the table considering sustain, damage and mobility ratio with respect to the effort required to do well, I am not suggesting now to nerf top professions but...the bottom professions need most of the nerfs reverted and some traits/utilities need update

[Psycoprophet.8107]

nice! Op should do best zerg class poll since zergging is the biggest component in wvw and compare how vastly different the lists are :).

[TheOneWhoSighs.7513]

@Psycoprophet.8107 said:nice! Op should do best zerg class poll since zergging is the biggest component in wvw and compare how vastly different the lists are :).

Tbh, the lists would still be pretty similar imo. The big movers on the list are Guardian/Thief/Ranger.

1. Guardian
2. Engineer
3. Revenant
4. Necromancer
5. Warrior
6. Elementalist
7. Mesmer (this slots in as #1 if you're the commander)
8. Ranger

And then there's thief. 3 miles away from the rest.

There's some play for how you order Necro/War/Ele/Mes, but imo they're all pretty close to each other in terms of viability in a zerg.

[Psycoprophet.8107]

@TheOneWhoSighs.7513 said:

@Psycoprophet.8107 said:nice! Op should do best zerg class poll since zergging is the biggest component in wvw and compare how vastly different the lists are :).

Tbh, the lists would still be pretty similar imo. The big movers on the list are Guardian/Thief/Ranger.

1. Guardian
2. Engineer
3. Revenant
4. Necromancer
5. Warrior
6. Elementalist
7. Mesmer (this slots in as #1 if you're the commander)
8. Ranger

And then there's thief. 3 miles away from the rest.

There's some play for how you order Necro/War/Ele/Mes, but imo they're all pretty close to each other in terms of viability in a zerg.

Yeah very true

[UNOwen.7132]

@Gotejjeken.1267 said:I think this is less of a roaming poll and more of a ganking one. Thieves and SBs (assuming glass ones) are very good at ganking or +1'ing but if they run into a bunker well the SB usually loses and the thief runs. Same holds true if they run into multiple people. Of course they are also the two most complained about on the forums by pepole that think 'warclaw = invincible' so they'd rank highly in this poll.

Yeah I agree, its funny that thief was voted number 1 in 1v1, when it either loses the 1v1, or runs against the next 4 spots. Hell, the only time Im worried about facing a thief in WvW is when I can't be bothered to switch off of my PvE DE, and even thats only because thief actually genuinely hard counters DE. If Im playing Core Engineer? I'd rather face a thief than 6 other classes.

If you meet actually good roamers / duelers, a good tempest / reaper / berserker can ruin your day pretty quick.

Also true, for the most part. I think Berserker is kinda easy to shut down, but core warrior or spellbreaker can be a real threat if they know what theyre doing.

[TheOneWhoSighs.7513]

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@Gotejjeken.1267 said:I think this is less of a roaming poll and more of a ganking one. Thieves and SBs (assuming glass ones) are very good at ganking or +1'ing but if they run into a bunker well the SB usually loses and the thief runs. Same holds true if they run into multiple people. Of course they are also the two most complained about on the forums by pepole that think 'warclaw = invincible' so they'd rank highly in this poll.

Yeah I agree, its funny that thief was voted number 1 in 1v1, when it either loses the 1v1, or runs against the next 4 spots. Hell, the only time Im worried about facing a thief in WvW is when I can't be bothered to switch off of my PvE DE, and even thats only because thief actually genuinely hard counters DE. If Im playing Core Engineer? I'd rather face a thief than 6 other classes.

I personally would still vote it number 1 in 1v1. First of all, a good thief is straight up annoying to 1v1 on any class. And second of all, every thief has the ability to choose their fights more easily than other classes.

Like maybe if we're talking a straight up arena style 1v1 where running away isn't an option, then yea. Thief would arguably not be number 1 (it'd still be high up there).

But in WvW style 1v1s, picking your fights is a big thing.

[UNOwen.7132]

@TheOneWhoSighs.7513 said:

@UNOwen.7132 said:

@Gotejjeken.1267 said:I think this is less of a roaming poll and more of a ganking one. Thieves and SBs (assuming glass ones) are very good at ganking or +1'ing but if they run into a bunker well the SB usually loses and the thief runs. Same holds true if they run into multiple people. Of course they are also the two most complained about on the forums by pepole that think 'warclaw = invincible' so they'd rank highly in this poll.

Yeah I agree, its funny that thief was voted number 1 in 1v1, when it either loses the 1v1, or runs against the next 4 spots. Hell, the only time Im worried about facing a thief in WvW is when I can't be bothered to switch off of my PvE DE, and even thats only because thief actually genuinely hard counters DE. If Im playing Core Engineer? I'd rather face a thief than 6 other classes.

I personally would still vote it number 1 in 1v1. First of all, a good thief is straight up annoying to 1v1 on any class. And second of all, every thief has the ability to choose their fights more easily than other classes.

Annoying is not the same as effective. And sure, thief has the ability to choose their fights, but running away from a fight because you cant win to me is the same as losing the fight. And thats what thief does against most of the classes.

Like maybe if we're talking a straight up arena style 1v1 where running away isn't an option, then yea. Thief would arguably not be number 1 (it'd still be high up there).

It wouldnt be high up. If you cant run away at all, itd be 7th, maybe 8th. There is a reason why in PvPs 2v2 and 3v3 gamemodes thief is entirely unplayable.

But in WvW style 1v1s, picking your fights is a big thing.

Sure, but that doesnt mean youre good at 1v1s. If you only pick fights you can win, which are fights against maybe 2 classes, and against players that are significantly worse than you, but run away from 80+% of all fights, youre pretty terrible at 1v1s. And even then, Ranger can pick their fights just as well, except they can actually win most 1v1s.

[Skada.1362]

Ranger is arguably a better 1v1er vs more builds than a thief, but a ranger cannot escape nearly as well. Atleast not a greatsword/lb ranger. You get what 1 leap on GS and maybe 1 more if you use gazelle/bird/whatever over smokescale? The other on my soulbeast, a gs / dagger spellbreaker chased me from alpine garrison all the way to south camp, i wasnt able to shrug him off of me and leave combat and eventually got rekt :S. The GS leap, bow stealth and smokescale stealth, swiftness and lightning reflexes wasnt even close to enough. Would be the same story vs alot of other builds too. But ye sure a ranger with like GS + sword/x + some leap pet has great mobility and can pick their fights alot easier but i think its safe to say the majority of rangers use greatsword + longbow.

[Shroud.2307]

My list:

Roaming

Thief/RangerEngineerRevenantMesmerWarriorElementalistGuardianNecromancer

1v1

RangerRevenantThiefEngineerMesmerWarriorElementalistGuardianNecromancer

RoamingThief and Ranger both have superb mobility and the tools to deal with any fight they find themselves in. That doesn't mean every fight is a winning fight, but that they have no hard counters, only soft. Some fights will be uphill, but because they can so easily control fights and frequently have skills (this means utility, trait, etc.) that are flexible enough to be of value against anything, they are pretty far ahead of the rest of the classes when it comes to floating around WvW.

I would put Engineer pretty close behind Thief and Ranger for its versatility. A well played one can handle pretty much anything, although unlike Thief and Ranger it does have a couple hard counters.

Revenant, Warrior, and Mesmer are all pretty well off when it comes to fight control, but Warrior and Mesmer may struggle to finish fights a little more than Rev.

Elementalist is underrated as a roamer. Because it can recover from chip damage a lot more easily than most classes can due to frequent small/large heals and/or Barrier, it can sustain through outnumbered fights for a very long time.

Guardian and Necromancer both have their moments, but low mobility and high cooldowns mean every fight is a cage match and the first mistake is probably the fight ender.

1v1Although people love to say Thief is the best 1v1'er, I pretty strongly disagree. It has the virtue of fight control, but that doesn't mean it's not going to have a lot of hard fights. It's just that it can choose to leave any time it wants, and 99% of the time people will spill their cards making it easy for the Thief to turn the favor.Ranger on the other hand has both the mobility and the versatility to handle anything it fights. Assuming open field, Ranger in WvW is easily the best 1v1'er, and not just because many use Longbow. It can be an extremely durable bruiser without sacrificing killing power, a glass cannon without sacrificing defenses, or even hybrid albeit the least durable of the line up.

Similarly to Engineer as a roamer, a well played Revenant can handle pretty much anything in a 1v1. Why I place it lower as a roamer and higher as a 1v1er is because Rev is heavily reliant on in combat mobility. It will struggle to escape a fight it can't handle, and as we all know, roaming rarely consists of 1v1's.

I pretty much covered Thief in point 1.

The rest are all pretty close as 1v1'ers, although I think I'd put Mesmer and Engineer just a touch higher than the others. And just because I place Necro and Guard at the bottom doesn't mean I think they're bad 1v1'ers either, but someone had to be at the bottom.Guard is actually quite strong in 1v1's, but patience tends to wear it down, and a good player will know it's just a matter of waiting out the cooldowns. Necro is pretty much the same, although with Necro it's more about how weak it is to CC and how much there is in the game. It does have one very strong 1v1 build being the Signet core build, but I'd still say with the amount of damage potential things have in WvW it's worse off than Guard. Still, I think everything below Thief has at least a couple builds that are strong for 1v1's, where as Thief and everything above are just good at 1v1 in general basically regardless of build.