Jump to content
  • Sign Up

Who rules solo pve?


Sylent.3165

Recommended Posts

I'm talking soloing dungeons, champions and hard events if no one else is around. Haven't played in a while.

Is it still necro and ranger or did we get any new contenders over the past year or so?

I know I know "every" class can do it. But my question is who's the best at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

@Sylent.3165 said:Eggs> @steki.1478 said:

I'd say mesmer. Chrono in dungeons due to burst and cc, mirage in open world because of aoe condi spam while being practically invincible.

What makes a mirage invincible? I tried one once near release but did awful, is it a particular skill or trait?

You can evade while doing damage and evading gives you even more damage from clone ambushes. Vigor is easy to come by and endurance food and sigils also help. You also get easy access to mobility from staff, axe and utilities, as well as stealth on torch, so even in a tough situation you can disengage while clones still do damage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@steki.1478 said:

@Sylent.3165 said:Eggs> @steki.1478 said:

I'd say mesmer. Chrono in dungeons due to burst and cc, mirage in open world because of aoe condi spam while being practically invincible.

What makes a mirage invincible? I tried one once near release but did awful, is it a particular skill or trait?

You can evade while doing damage and evading gives you even more damage from clone ambushes. Vigor is easy to come by and endurance food and sigils also help. You also get easy access to mobility from staff, axe and utilities, as well as stealth on torch, so even in a tough situation you can disengage while clones still do damage.

Thanks I'll give it a go :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@steki.1478 said:

@Sylent.3165 said:Eggs> @steki.1478 said:

I'd say mesmer. Chrono in dungeons due to burst and cc, mirage in open world because of aoe condi spam while being practically invincible.

What makes a mirage invincible? I tried one once near release but did awful, is it a particular skill or trait?

You can evade while doing damage and evading gives you even more damage from clone ambushes. Vigor is easy to come by and endurance food and sigils also help. You also get easy access to mobility from staff, axe and utilities, as well as stealth on torch, so even in a tough situation you can disengage while clones still do damage.

Well disengaging is for weaklings.

The thing is... it's not really so easy to compare. And it really depends on what one defines as "best". Unless we're talking 100% optimised raids, it's really personal preference.

I have a full viper mirage and it is the "best" in some situations, true. Soloing champions without getting hit isnt that complicated. But just like any pure dps, it falls flat on it's face when you do get hit. You can do simple endurance tests if you want. Now with pavilion up, I recommend visiting the bandit forest and take on ~10 veterans at once. I have problems doing that on my PvE specced viper mirage but I have no problems doing it on my p/p scrapper that's built for WvW sustain, lol. The more mobs the merrier.

In open world PvE I personally find that doing 10k dps indefinetly is somewhat better than doing 30k dps and downing in the first seconds of the fight because a random mob farted in your general direction. Most will disagree though and just do full front loaded builds. Its ok.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Sylent.3165 said:Eggs> @steki.1478 said:

I'd say mesmer. Chrono in dungeons due to burst and cc, mirage in open world because of aoe condi spam while being practically invincible.

What makes a mirage invincible? I tried one once near release but did awful, is it a particular skill or trait?

You can evade while doing damage and evading gives you even more damage from clone ambushes. Vigor is easy to come by and endurance food and sigils also help. You also get easy access to mobility from staff, axe and utilities, as well as stealth on torch, so even in a tough situation you can disengage while clones still do damage.

Well disengaging is for weaklings.

The thing is... it's not really so easy to compare. And it really depends on what one defines as "best". Unless we're talking 100% optimised raids, it's really personal preference.

I have a full viper mirage and it is the "best" in some situations, true. Soloing champions without getting hit isnt that complicated. But just like any pure dps, it falls flat on it's face when you
do
get hit. You can do simple endurance tests if you want. Now with pavilion up, I recommend visiting the bandit forest and take on ~10 veterans at once. I have problems doing that on my PvE specced viper mirage but I have no problems doing it on my p/p scrapper that's built for WvW sustain, lol. The more mobs the merrier.

In open world PvE I personally find that doing 10k dps indefinetly is somewhat better than doing 30k dps and downing in the first seconds of the fight because a random mob farted in your general direction. Most will disagree though and just do full front loaded builds. Its ok.

Thing is, you'll only ever run into situation like this on purpose. You won't find 10+ veterans who engage you normally. And even if you did, as a Mirage you could simply disengage. Purposefully placing yourself in a bad situation and choosing to not evade it is a very poor reason to cripple your own damage output like that.

I do the opposite - in the extremely rare cases when I actually need to be tankier, I switch build. And then go back. Because 99.9% of the time you're fine in a full damage spec. Especially Mirage, precisely because it has a lot of mitigation built-in which doesn't sacrifice damage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Feanor.2358 said:

@Sylent.3165 said:Eggs> @steki.1478 said:

I'd say mesmer. Chrono in dungeons due to burst and cc, mirage in open world because of aoe condi spam while being practically invincible.

What makes a mirage invincible? I tried one once near release but did awful, is it a particular skill or trait?

You can evade while doing damage and evading gives you even more damage from clone ambushes. Vigor is easy to come by and endurance food and sigils also help. You also get easy access to mobility from staff, axe and utilities, as well as stealth on torch, so even in a tough situation you can disengage while clones still do damage.

Well disengaging is for weaklings.

The thing is... it's not really so easy to compare. And it really depends on what one defines as "best". Unless we're talking 100% optimised raids, it's really personal preference.

I have a full viper mirage and it is the "best" in some situations, true. Soloing champions without getting hit isnt that complicated. But just like any pure dps, it falls flat on it's face when you
do
get hit. You can do simple endurance tests if you want. Now with pavilion up, I recommend visiting the bandit forest and take on ~10 veterans at once. I have problems doing that on my PvE specced viper mirage but I have no problems doing it on my p/p scrapper that's built for WvW sustain, lol. The more mobs the merrier.

In open world PvE I personally find that doing 10k dps indefinetly is somewhat better than doing 30k dps and downing in the first seconds of the fight because a random mob farted in your general direction. Most will disagree though and just do full front loaded builds. Its ok.

Thing is, you'll only ever run into situation like this on purpose. You won't find 10+ veterans who engage you normally. And even if you did, as a Mirage you could simply disengage. Purposefully placing yourself in a bad situation and
choosing
to not evade it is a very poor reason to cripple your own damage output like that.

I do the opposite - in the extremely rare cases when I actually need to be tankier, I switch build. And then go back. Because 99.9% of the time you're fine in a full damage spec.
Especially
Mirage, precisely because it has a lot of mitigation built-in which doesn't sacrifice damage.

Which is the point. When you only choose to engage targets you know you can kill or you run away, the class becomes irrelevant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Sylent.3165 said:Eggs> @steki.1478 said:

I'd say mesmer. Chrono in dungeons due to burst and cc, mirage in open world because of aoe condi spam while being practically invincible.

What makes a mirage invincible? I tried one once near release but did awful, is it a particular skill or trait?

You can evade while doing damage and evading gives you even more damage from clone ambushes. Vigor is easy to come by and endurance food and sigils also help. You also get easy access to mobility from staff, axe and utilities, as well as stealth on torch, so even in a tough situation you can disengage while clones still do damage.

Well disengaging is for weaklings.

The thing is... it's not really so easy to compare. And it really depends on what one defines as "best". Unless we're talking 100% optimised raids, it's really personal preference.

I have a full viper mirage and it is the "best" in some situations, true. Soloing champions without getting hit isnt that complicated. But just like any pure dps, it falls flat on it's face when you
do
get hit. You can do simple endurance tests if you want. Now with pavilion up, I recommend visiting the bandit forest and take on ~10 veterans at once. I have problems doing that on my PvE specced viper mirage but I have no problems doing it on my p/p scrapper that's built for WvW sustain, lol. The more mobs the merrier.

In open world PvE I personally find that doing 10k dps indefinetly is somewhat better than doing 30k dps and downing in the first seconds of the fight because a random mob farted in your general direction. Most will disagree though and just do full front loaded builds. Its ok.

Thing is, you'll only ever run into situation like this on purpose. You won't find 10+ veterans who engage you normally. And even if you did, as a Mirage you could simply disengage. Purposefully placing yourself in a bad situation and
choosing
to not evade it is a very poor reason to cripple your own damage output like that.

I do the opposite - in the extremely rare cases when I actually need to be tankier, I switch build. And then go back. Because 99.9% of the time you're fine in a full damage spec.
Especially
Mirage, precisely because it has a lot of mitigation built-in which doesn't sacrifice damage.

Which is the point. When you only choose to engage targets you know you can kill or you run away, the class becomes irrelevant.

No, because the build in question enables you to engage (or disengage) a much wider variety of targets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Every class can solo just fine. But some do it a bit more effectively than others. This can highly depend on the situation. I'm going to include group events. Even though you aren't typically the only person around you are still fairly solo. I'm also going to talk about what's best for Soloing for new players who might have a free account. So there will be that.

Warrior: Warrior has a lot of escape options and moves fairly quickly. If you don't have access to mounts or gliding the Warrior is one of the best if not the best solo profession out there. Their relatively high burst damage, high bulk large number of options, high mobility easy use of play makes them incredibly effective for solo roaming. Especially on new players. Their attacks are generally quick enough and range long enough that getting decent credit in large scale events also makes them really good in solo PvE. As for Solo Dungeons they used to be the meta choice for those, but now a days its not as common. They are still a good choice though.

  • Berserker: This takes what the warrior had and improves on it, giving them more aoe with larger hit boxes that improve their roaming game.
  • Spellbreaker: This one I feel isn't much of an improvement over core warrior for Solo roaming in PvE, but for soloing bosses its extra block is handy to have. Its use of boon strip also grants higher utility in later maps in HoT so this is something to consider.

Guardian: Guardian is also very good at roaming but is significantly more fragile than warrior. Although their defenses allow them to out tank them, this requires a little bit more skill from the player. They have access to good AoE as well as lots of self sustain. If you can work with the low health pool the guardian is an easy profession to roam on. Soloing bosses is a bit harder since the core spec doesn't quite have the options warrior does, but its elite specs clear up that weakness very well.

  • Dragonhunter: With Dragonhunter you get access to more aoe, a decent ranged weapon and their traps. They can make short work of most enemies and their overall DPS is increased to the next level. In world events they shine very well against the trash mobs giving you credit fairly easily.
  • Firebrand: Firebrand is a bit more difficult to use, but has far more aoe to work with than dragonhunter even though its effective armor is much more difficult to acquire. As a roamer though they can do a lot more to protect themselves and hit large groups with ease using their tome of justice.

Revenant: Revenant has fewest options for skills in the game, but the skills they do have lends themselves very well to open world. They have tones of AoE damage as well as very strong sustain. The biggest issue most people seem to have with them is the energy mechanic, but once you learn it there really isn't many enemies you can't take out or fight effectively. Their biggest weakness in open world would be conditions, but normally that's not a major issue. Their core weapons give you good options right out the gate with gap closers and a powerful ranged weapon.

  • Herald: Herald gives you bonus movement speed if you don't have PoF as well as shield which is fantastic for tanking bosses. Their natural high DPS with the ability to self buff and sustain makes them a solid open world pick.
  • Renegade: Unlike Herald Renegade suffers a bit in open world. The warband that you summon aren't the most effective allies and take valuable time from DPSing which can make it unnecessarily clunky to use. Their Citadel Bombardment is their most effective tool for events while Shortbow is quite effective if used properly, but its strange projectiles makes it a bit unwieldy at first.

Ranger: Ranger is still just as effective as before. It offers pets which can be useful for resing and giving the ranger more utility, one of the longest ranged weapons in the game a few massive aoe hit boxes as well as some decent bulk. Rangers are one of the easier classes to use and have good movement. They don't have a true weakpoint in Solo PvE.

  • Druid: Druid isn't bad in open world for map completion. And in group events they will always be useful. That 33% movement speed is useful for those without PoF. Their high sustain makes them useful and their AoE buffs can be used to self buff. They're not a bad option to take with ranger.
  • SoulBeast: Higher Damage in power and condi, the soulbeast offers players almost an upgrade of core Ranger.

Thief: Thief doesn't have much in the way of AoE damage on its own, but it does have a lot of movement and stealth. This gives it the ability to complete maps quickly. They are very fast, able to outpace even the warrior when moving across the map in the core game. If your goal is Map completion they are one of the best choices.

  • Daredevil: Take that Aoe Damage problem and throw it out because Daredevil gives you all the AoE you'll ever need! On top of that it also grands you the ability to clear maps even quicker than before with its dash trait. It also has very active defenses in its dodges which are also damage allowing it to solo bosses for quite a while without much problem.
  • Deadeye: Gives you some decent range, but in Open world this really isn't much of an improvement. The Marking of targets can be useful for bosses and its high DPS lets you kill them in a decent time. If this was raids or WvW it would be a different story, but solo PvE, deadeye just isn't as good as daredevil.

Engineer: Engineer offers quite a few aoe options at decent speed. This makes them really strong in group events killing trash mobs. Their Grenades give them range and flamethrower is an easy means to farm in places like cursed shore. Engineer is a bit difficult to use though at times and its core weapons offer little in the way of AoE damage so you'll mostly be relying on kits. Engineer also suffers from kit syndrome so useful survival utility just isn't as readily available to them.

  • Scrapper: Scrapper improves engineer's surviability by quite a bit and the hammer which has some decent AoE damage as well as a potent gap closer. But they are also fairly lacking overall damage being more tanky than anything else. If Scrapper is taken its more to shore up the weaknesses in Open world engineer faces.
  • Holosmith: Holosmith offers quite a bit in ways of damage but can also be pretty self destructive. They do have some decent options that make for easy builds to just roam with so they aren't too bad. Certainly an improvement overall.

Elementalist: The damage is there for Elementalist. But they are very frail. They can kill bosses with the best of them In group events they shine very brightly because of their large hit boxes. Elementalist is also very good at self healing, seeing as they kinda have to be otherwise they probably couldn't solo roam in PvE all too well.

  • Tempest: Tempest offers a lot more AoE damage and greater condition cleans and self sustain. Their shouts can be useful in a pinch and have a bit more to offer. But the frailty is still there.
  • Weaver: A bit more physical build than Elementalist which makes weaver capable of pushing a lot harder than they normally could. They also have improved DPS and more AoE options.

Necromancer: Core necromancer is exceptionally slow in PvE. Not the slowest, but pretty close. They have no escape options, one of their best movement tools puts them into combat and their DPS is rather weak. Their saving grace is just how tanky they are. They are the easiest to roam on but ultimately lack good utility, damage and suffer from long cool downs. They can be a struggle to get credit for group events because of this which can make them out to be the worst possible option depending on what you want to do.

  • Reaper: You remember everything I just said about Necromancer? Forget almost all of it! Reaper is fairly tanky, harder to crowd control from enemies and their AoE damage is extremely sizable on their own. They can solo bosses fairly easily and getting credit in events is not difficult. Reaper is probably the easiest thing to roam on. Their one glaring flaw is just how weak their Ranged DPS is. Which can matter in events like Dragon stand, but you should have too much of a problem with them.
  • Scourge: Scourge offers a lot of AoE damage and potent crowd control. But lacks the up front punch that reaper has. The way their life force works makes them really strong in group events but also means that they suffer heavily against bosses unless you spec yourself specifically to fight bosses. They are still exceptionally strong in most situations, but they're a bit tougher to gear due to their heavy expertise requirement.

Mesmer: SLOW! The mesmer is really really slow. They have means of escape and stealth but overall they are the slowest class in the game. This has lead people to believe they aren't good or are hard to play. This isn't the case though. Mesmers do also suffer from a real lack of AoE damage which harms them against trash mobs which can be their biggest struggle. But the advantages of mesmer far outweigh the weakness. Access to Portal and their great utility lets mesmers do all sorts of tricksy things that are not possible on other professions. For Soloing bosses mesmers are one of the easiest provided that boss doesn't spawn minions.

  • Chronomancer: The speed problem is fixed with one of chronomancer's minor traits and they're given more defensive options as well as a good selection of AoE damage Their two weaknesses are cleared up with chrono making them very effective.
  • Mirage: Thanks to mounts movement speed isn't an issue so that weakness is gone. And the Mirage has a lot of AoE to its name as well. Its defenses are also quite high thanks to its unique mechanic. Mirage also has quite a good bit of burst damage as well as sustained damage meaning they can fight in group events effectively as well as bosses.

These are just my opinions on them though. So if you disagree that's cool. Some of these I've also played more than others. Like Elementalist is one of my least played classes so take that with a grain of salt. I could be completely wrong about them.

So which is best overall? Well I feel I'd have to rank it like this:

  1. Mesmer
  2. Warrior
  3. Necromancer
  4. Ranger
  5. Guardian
  6. Revenant
  7. Thief
  8. Engineer
  9. Elementalist

This is only my opinion though for Solo PvE. And I'm willing to change my mind if other's feel something should be higher or lower.

Edit: For a Side note, if you only have the core game, these rankings do change a bit:

  1. Warrior
  2. Ranger
  3. Guardian
  4. Engineer
  5. Mesmer
  6. Thief
  7. Necromancer
  8. Elementalist
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Soloing team contents, like dungeons or fractals, is often more related to be able to skip mechanics that would normally force multiple players than actually the class capability's themselves.

With a little patience, many bosses in this games are soloable. Champions on Open PvE as well.In fact, some people can even solo some specific Legendarys using some strategy's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Lily.1935 said:So which is best overall? Well I feel I'd have to rank it like this:

  1. Mesmer
  2. Warrior
  3. Necromancer
  4. Ranger
  5. Guardian
  6. Revenant
  7. Thief
  8. Engineer
  9. Elementalist

This is only my opinion though for Solo PvE. And I'm willing to change my mind if other's feel something should be higher or lower.

Edit: For a Side note, if you only have the core game, these rankings do change a bit:

  1. Warrior
  2. Ranger
  3. Guardian
  4. Engineer
  5. Mesmer
  6. Thief
  7. Necromancer
  8. Elementalist

I like how in both your lists Elementalists is at the bottom and I honestly I agree with it completely. Patch after patch, as they are nerfing Elementalist for how they perform in big/small groups, they become worse and worse in solo experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like how in both your lists Elementalists is at the bottom and I honestly I agree with it completely. Patch after patch, as they are nerfing Elementalist for how they perform in big/small groups, they become worse and worse in solo experience.

the worst part is if you build to suvive you're damage becomes laughable. You're almost stuck going some sort of glass cannon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@Lily.1935 said:So which is best overall? Well I feel I'd have to rank it like this:
  1. Mesmer
  2. Warrior
  3. Necromancer
  4. Ranger
  5. Guardian
  6. Revenant
  7. Thief
  8. Engineer
  9. Elementalist

This is only my opinion though for Solo PvE. And I'm willing to change my mind if other's feel something should be higher or lower.

Edit: For a Side note, if you only have the core game, these rankings do change a bit:
  1. Warrior
  2. Ranger
  3. Guardian
  4. Engineer
  5. Mesmer
  6. Thief
  7. Necromancer
  8. Elementalist

I like how in both your lists Elementalists is at the bottom and I honestly I agree with it completely. Patch after patch, as they are nerfing Elementalist for how they perform in big/small groups, they become worse and worse in solo experience.

I Honestly didn't want to. I think they're still good and can be successful but the low health and low defensive options really hinders them in Solo PvE. I don't think they're terrible at it. I feel that each of them are closer than it looks. The Difference of them is not as big of a gap as it might first appear though. For example, Engineer shifts pretty hard on the list. But Scrapper and Holosmith are both better for solo PvE than core Engineer is. But its not a major improvement so it doesn't shift up. Where as other classes like mesmer and necromancer have MAJOR improvements with their elite specs so they shift up much higher.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"Sylent.3165" said:I'm talking soloing dungeons, champions and hard events if no one else is around. Haven't played in a while.

Is it still necro and ranger or did we get any new contenders over the past year or so?

I know I know "every" class can do it. But my question is who's the best at it.

It depend a lot of the player and what you mean by "rules solo PvE".

If you didn't mind being slow as hell in dungeon, sure necro and ranger were good contender. If it was a matter of fast completion elementalists was the top dog.

Anyway, nowaday mesmers have the upperhand when it come to complete things with ease. And I'd say that Spellbreaker is close behind the mesmer. This doesn't mean that the necrominion master is totally out of the picture but it's not nearly as fast as the previous 2 on a ratio difficulty/speed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When its all said and done, the classes with the most potential to solo clear group content are the Duelist, due to their ability to control a fight, but also burst down targets one by one. Thief's biggest vulnerability is being a single target, making anything past 1v1 increasingly more difficult and substantially more dangerous. But the Mesmer can do something the Thief can't..... engage multiple targets at the same time. While it severely reduces their engagement efficiency, the mere fact that clones and phantasms can distract aggro away from the real Mesmer allows them a great deal of breathing room is cluttered fights. But more importantly, unlike thief skills, Mesmer skills tend to be a more indiscriminate with higher target caps, and a few which have no target cap. Coupled with an unparalleled amount of evasive abilities (even in Core), they can kite indefinably if needed, and their Duelist nature makes them excel in boss fights.

The skill cap on Mesmer is pretty high... but they are by far one of the best classes mechanically equipped to fight things bigger then they are, without relying on a gimmicky build. Some gimmick builds (like Caviler Guardian) can have a lot of effective power, but generally have an Achilles heel that causes the build to collapse when faced, and are less versatile overall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Lily.1935 said:Every class can solo just fine. But some do it a bit more effectively than others. This can highly depend on the situation. I'm going to include group events. Even though you aren't typically the only person around you are still fairly solo. I'm also going to talk about what's best for Soloing for new players who might have a free account. So there will be that.

Warrior: Warrior has a lot of escape options and moves fairly quickly. If you don't have access to mounts or gliding the Warrior is one of the best if not the best solo profession out there. Their relatively high burst damage, high bulk large number of options, high mobility easy use of play makes them incredibly effective for solo roaming. Especially on new players. Their attacks are generally quick enough and range long enough that getting decent credit in large scale events also makes them really good in solo PvE. As for Solo Dungeons they used to be the meta choice for those, but now a days its not as common. They are still a good choice though.

  • Berserker: This takes what the warrior had and improves on it, giving them more aoe with larger hit boxes that improve their roaming game.
  • Spellbreaker: This one I feel isn't much of an improvement over core warrior for Solo roaming in PvE, but for soloing bosses its extra block is handy to have. Its use of boon strip also grants higher utility in later maps in HoT so this is something to consider.

Guardian: Guardian is also very good at roaming but is significantly more fragile than warrior. Although their defenses allow them to out tank them, this requires a little bit more skill from the player. They have access to good AoE as well as lots of self sustain. If you can work with the low health pool the guardian is an easy profession to roam on. Soloing bosses is a bit harder since the core spec doesn't quite have the options warrior does, but its elite specs clear up that weakness very well.

  • Dragonhunter: With Dragonhunter you get access to more aoe, a decent ranged weapon and their traps. They can make short work of most enemies and their overall DPS is increased to the next level. In world events they shine very well against the trash mobs giving you credit fairly easily.
  • Firebrand: Firebrand is a bit more difficult to use, but has far more aoe to work with than dragonhunter even though its effective armor is much more difficult to acquire. As a roamer though they can do a lot more to protect themselves and hit large groups with ease using their tome of justice.

Revenant: Revenant has fewest options for skills in the game, but the skills they do have lends themselves very well to open world. They have tones of AoE damage as well as very strong sustain. The biggest issue most people seem to have with them is the energy mechanic, but once you learn it there really isn't many enemies you can't take out or fight effectively. Their biggest weakness in open world would be conditions, but normally that's not a major issue. Their core weapons give you good options right out the gate with gap closers and a powerful ranged weapon.

  • Herald: Herald gives you bonus movement speed if you don't have PoF as well as shield which is fantastic for tanking bosses. Their natural high DPS with the ability to self buff and sustain makes them a solid open world pick.
  • Renegade: Unlike Herald Renegade suffers a bit in open world. The warband that you summon aren't the most effective allies and take valuable time from DPSing which can make it unnecessarily clunky to use. Their Citadel Bombardment is their most effective tool for events while Shortbow is quite effective if used properly, but its strange projectiles makes it a bit unwieldy at first.

Ranger: Ranger is still just as effective as before. It offers pets which can be useful for resing and giving the ranger more utility, one of the longest ranged weapons in the game a few massive aoe hit boxes as well as some decent bulk. Rangers are one of the easier classes to use and have good movement. They don't have a true weakpoint in Solo PvE.

  • Druid: Druid isn't bad in open world for map completion. And in group events they will always be useful. That 33% movement speed is useful for those without PoF. Their high sustain makes them useful and their AoE buffs can be used to self buff. They're not a bad option to take with ranger.
  • SoulBeast: Higher Damage in power and condi, the soulbeast offers players almost an upgrade of core Ranger.

Thief: Thief doesn't have much in the way of AoE damage on its own, but it does have a lot of movement and stealth. This gives it the ability to complete maps quickly. They are very fast, able to outpace even the warrior when moving across the map in the core game. If your goal is Map completion they are one of the best choices.

  • Daredevil: Take that Aoe Damage problem and throw it out because Daredevil gives you all the AoE you'll ever need! On top of that it also grands you the ability to clear maps even quicker than before with its dash trait. It also has very active defenses in its dodges which are also damage allowing it to solo bosses for quite a while without much problem.
  • Deadeye: Gives you some decent range, but in Open world this really isn't much of an improvement. The Marking of targets can be useful for bosses and its high DPS lets you kill them in a decent time. If this was raids or WvW it would be a different story, but solo PvE, deadeye just isn't as good as daredevil.

Engineer: Engineer offers quite a few aoe options at decent speed. This makes them really strong in group events killing trash mobs. Their Grenades give them range and flamethrower is an easy means to farm in places like cursed shore. Engineer is a bit difficult to use though at times and its core weapons offer little in the way of AoE damage so you'll mostly be relying on kits. Engineer also suffers from kit syndrome so useful survival utility just isn't as readily available to them.

  • Scrapper: Scrapper improves engineer's surviability by quite a bit and the hammer which has some decent AoE damage as well as a potent gap closer. But they are also fairly lacking overall damage being more tanky than anything else. If Scrapper is taken its more to shore up the weaknesses in Open world engineer faces.
  • Holosmith: Holosmith offers quite a bit in ways of damage but can also be pretty self destructive. They do have some decent options that make for easy builds to just roam with so they aren't too bad. Certainly an improvement overall.

Elementalist: The damage is there for Elementalist. But they are very frail. They can kill bosses with the best of them In group events they shine very brightly because of their large hit boxes. Elementalist is also very good at self healing, seeing as they kinda have to be otherwise they probably couldn't solo roam in PvE all too well.

  • Tempest: Tempest offers a lot more AoE damage and greater condition cleans and self sustain. Their shouts can be useful in a pinch and have a bit more to offer. But the frailty is still there.
  • Weaver: A bit more physical build than Elementalist which makes weaver capable of pushing a lot harder than they normally could. They also have improved DPS and more AoE options.

Necromancer: Core necromancer is exceptionally slow in PvE. Not the slowest, but pretty close. They have no escape options, one of their best movement tools puts them into combat and their DPS is rather weak. Their saving grace is just how tanky they are. They are the easiest to roam on but ultimately lack good utility, damage and suffer from long cool downs. They can be a struggle to get credit for group events because of this which can make them out to be the worst possible option depending on what you want to do.

  • Reaper: You remember everything I just said about Necromancer? Forget almost all of it! Reaper is fairly tanky, harder to crowd control from enemies and their AoE damage is extremely sizable on their own. They can solo bosses fairly easily and getting credit in events is not difficult. Reaper is probably the easiest thing to roam on. Their one glaring flaw is just how weak their Ranged DPS is. Which can matter in events like Dragon stand, but you should have too much of a problem with them.
  • Scourge: Scourge offers a lot of AoE damage and potent crowd control. But lacks the up front punch that reaper has. The way their life force works makes them really strong in group events but also means that they suffer heavily against bosses unless you spec yourself specifically to fight bosses. They are still exceptionally strong in most situations, but they're a bit tougher to gear due to their heavy expertise requirement.

Mesmer: SLOW! The mesmer is really really slow. They have means of escape and stealth but overall they are the slowest class in the game. This has lead people to believe they aren't good or are hard to play. This isn't the case though. Mesmers do also suffer from a real lack of AoE damage which harms them against trash mobs which can be their biggest struggle. But the advantages of mesmer far outweigh the weakness. Access to Portal and their great utility lets mesmers do all sorts of tricksy things that are not possible on other professions. For Soloing bosses mesmers are one of the easiest provided that boss doesn't spawn minions.

  • Chronomancer: The speed problem is fixed with one of chronomancer's minor traits and they're given more defensive options as well as a good selection of AoE damage Their two weaknesses are cleared up with chrono making them very effective.
  • Mirage: Thanks to mounts movement speed isn't an issue so that weakness is gone. And the Mirage has a lot of AoE to its name as well. Its defenses are also quite high thanks to its unique mechanic. Mirage also has quite a good bit of burst damage as well as sustained damage meaning they can fight in group events effectively as well as bosses.

These are just my opinions on them though. So if you disagree that's cool. Some of these I've also played more than others. Like Elementalist is one of my least played classes so take that with a grain of salt. I could be completely wrong about them.

So which is best overall? Well I feel I'd have to rank it like this:

  1. Mesmer
  2. Warrior
  3. Necromancer
  4. Ranger
  5. Guardian
  6. Revenant
  7. Thief
  8. Engineer
  9. Elementalist

Engineer is way too low on this list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMO, Necro and Firebrand/Guardian rule solo encounters. Everything has viable builds, but these are top of the heap.

Guard (Firebrand in particular)- Lots of active mitigation (aegis), self healing, and toughness, all while pumping out plenty of damage to solo champs in record time. Whether it's AOE'ing 10 trash mobs or dropping a champ solo the same build can do both.

Necro- Soaks hits like a boss. Reaper can burst like crazy while soaking the needed hits, or you can do MM necro is basically faceroll and the top choice for lazy PVE.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@pocky.1597 said:

@Lily.1935 said:Every class can solo just fine. But some do it a bit more effectively than others. This can highly depend on the situation. I'm going to include group events. Even though you aren't typically the only person around you are still fairly solo. I'm also going to talk about what's best for Soloing for new players who might have a free account. So there will be that.

Warrior:
Warrior has a lot of escape options and moves fairly quickly. If you don't have access to mounts or gliding the Warrior is one of the best if not the best solo profession out there. Their relatively high burst damage, high bulk large number of options, high mobility easy use of play makes them incredibly effective for solo roaming. Especially on new players. Their attacks are generally quick enough and range long enough that getting decent credit in large scale events also makes them really good in solo PvE. As for Solo Dungeons they used to be the meta choice for those, but now a days its not as common. They are still a good choice though.
  • Berserker: This takes what the warrior had and improves on it, giving them more aoe with larger hit boxes that improve their roaming game.
  • Spellbreaker: This one I feel isn't much of an improvement over core warrior for Solo roaming in PvE, but for soloing bosses its extra block is handy to have. Its use of boon strip also grants higher utility in later maps in HoT so this is something to consider.

Guardian:
Guardian is also very good at roaming but is significantly more fragile than warrior. Although their defenses allow them to out tank them, this requires a little bit more skill from the player. They have access to good AoE as well as lots of self sustain. If you can work with the low health pool the guardian is an easy profession to roam on. Soloing bosses is a bit harder since the core spec doesn't quite have the options warrior does, but its elite specs clear up that weakness very well.
  • Dragonhunter: With Dragonhunter you get access to more aoe, a decent ranged weapon and their traps. They can make short work of most enemies and their overall DPS is increased to the next level. In world events they shine very well against the trash mobs giving you credit fairly easily.
  • Firebrand: Firebrand is a bit more difficult to use, but has far more aoe to work with than dragonhunter even though its effective armor is much more difficult to acquire. As a roamer though they can do a lot more to protect themselves and hit large groups with ease using their tome of justice.

Revenant:
Revenant has fewest options for skills in the game, but the skills they do have lends themselves very well to open world. They have tones of AoE damage as well as very strong sustain. The biggest issue most people seem to have with them is the energy mechanic, but once you learn it there really isn't many enemies you can't take out or fight effectively. Their biggest weakness in open world would be conditions, but normally that's not a major issue. Their core weapons give you good options right out the gate with gap closers and a powerful ranged weapon.
  • Herald: Herald gives you bonus movement speed if you don't have PoF as well as shield which is fantastic for tanking bosses. Their natural high DPS with the ability to self buff and sustain makes them a solid open world pick.
  • Renegade: Unlike Herald Renegade suffers a bit in open world. The warband that you summon aren't the most effective allies and take valuable time from DPSing which can make it unnecessarily clunky to use. Their Citadel Bombardment is their most effective tool for events while Shortbow is quite effective if used properly, but its strange projectiles makes it a bit unwieldy at first.

Ranger:
Ranger is still just as effective as before. It offers pets which can be useful for resing and giving the ranger more utility, one of the longest ranged weapons in the game a few massive aoe hit boxes as well as some decent bulk. Rangers are one of the easier classes to use and have good movement. They don't have a true weakpoint in Solo PvE.
  • Druid: Druid isn't bad in open world for map completion. And in group events they will always be useful. That 33% movement speed is useful for those without PoF. Their high sustain makes them useful and their AoE buffs can be used to self buff. They're not a bad option to take with ranger.
  • SoulBeast: Higher Damage in power and condi, the soulbeast offers players almost an upgrade of core Ranger.

Thief:
Thief doesn't have much in the way of AoE damage on its own, but it does have a lot of movement and stealth. This gives it the ability to complete maps quickly. They are very fast, able to outpace even the warrior when moving across the map in the core game. If your goal is Map completion they are one of the best choices.
  • Daredevil: Take that Aoe Damage problem and throw it out because Daredevil gives you all the AoE you'll ever need! On top of that it also grands you the ability to clear maps even quicker than before with its dash trait. It also has very active defenses in its dodges which are also damage allowing it to solo bosses for quite a while without much problem.
  • Deadeye: Gives you some decent range, but in Open world this really isn't much of an improvement. The Marking of targets can be useful for bosses and its high DPS lets you kill them in a decent time. If this was raids or WvW it would be a different story, but solo PvE, deadeye just isn't as good as daredevil.

Engineer:
Engineer offers quite a few aoe options at decent speed. This makes them really strong in group events killing trash mobs. Their Grenades give them range and flamethrower is an easy means to farm in places like cursed shore. Engineer is a bit difficult to use though at times and its core weapons offer little in the way of AoE damage so you'll mostly be relying on kits. Engineer also suffers from kit syndrome so useful survival utility just isn't as readily available to them.
  • Scrapper: Scrapper improves engineer's surviability by quite a bit and the hammer which has some decent AoE damage as well as a potent gap closer. But they are also fairly lacking overall damage being more tanky than anything else. If Scrapper is taken its more to shore up the weaknesses in Open world engineer faces.
  • Holosmith: Holosmith offers quite a bit in ways of damage but can also be pretty self destructive. They do have some decent options that make for easy builds to just roam with so they aren't too bad. Certainly an improvement overall.

Elementalist:
The damage is there for Elementalist. But they are very frail. They can kill bosses with the best of them In group events they shine very brightly because of their large hit boxes. Elementalist is also very good at self healing, seeing as they kinda have to be otherwise they probably couldn't solo roam in PvE all too well.
  • Tempest: Tempest offers a lot more AoE damage and greater condition cleans and self sustain. Their shouts can be useful in a pinch and have a bit more to offer. But the frailty is still there.
  • Weaver: A bit more physical build than Elementalist which makes weaver capable of pushing a lot harder than they normally could. They also have improved DPS and more AoE options.

Necromancer:
Core necromancer is exceptionally slow in PvE. Not the slowest, but pretty close. They have no escape options, one of their best movement tools puts them into combat and their DPS is rather weak. Their saving grace is just how tanky they are. They are the easiest to roam on but ultimately lack good utility, damage and suffer from long cool downs. They can be a struggle to get credit for group events because of this which can make them out to be the worst possible option depending on what you want to do.
  • Reaper: You remember everything I just said about Necromancer? Forget almost all of it! Reaper is fairly tanky, harder to crowd control from enemies and their AoE damage is extremely sizable on their own. They can solo bosses fairly easily and getting credit in events is not difficult. Reaper is probably the easiest thing to roam on. Their one glaring flaw is just how weak their Ranged DPS is. Which can matter in events like Dragon stand, but you should have too much of a problem with them.
  • Scourge: Scourge offers a lot of AoE damage and potent crowd control. But lacks the up front punch that reaper has. The way their life force works makes them really strong in group events but also means that they suffer heavily against bosses unless you spec yourself specifically to fight bosses. They are still exceptionally strong in most situations, but they're a bit tougher to gear due to their heavy expertise requirement.

Mesmer:
SLOW! The mesmer is really really slow. They have means of escape and stealth but overall they are the slowest class in the game. This has lead people to believe they aren't good or are hard to play. This isn't the case though. Mesmers do also suffer from a real lack of AoE damage which harms them against trash mobs which can be their biggest struggle. But the advantages of mesmer far outweigh the weakness. Access to Portal and their great utility lets mesmers do all sorts of tricksy things that are not possible on other professions. For Soloing bosses mesmers are one of the easiest provided that boss doesn't spawn minions.
  • Chronomancer: The speed problem is fixed with one of chronomancer's minor traits and they're given more defensive options as well as a good selection of AoE damage Their two weaknesses are cleared up with chrono making them very effective.
  • Mirage: Thanks to mounts movement speed isn't an issue so that weakness is gone. And the Mirage has a lot of AoE to its name as well. Its defenses are also quite high thanks to its unique mechanic. Mirage also has quite a good bit of burst damage as well as sustained damage meaning they can fight in group events effectively as well as bosses.

These are just my opinions on them though. So if you disagree that's cool. Some of these I've also played more than others. Like Elementalist is one of my least played classes so take that with a grain of salt. I could be completely wrong about them.

So which is best overall? Well I feel I'd have to rank it like this:
  1. Mesmer
  2. Warrior
  3. Necromancer
  4. Ranger
  5. Guardian
  6. Revenant
  7. Thief
  8. Engineer
  9. Elementalist

Engineer is way too low on this list.

Why do you think that? I think Engineer and thief are pretty close.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Rhyse.8179 said:IMO, Necro and Firebrand/Guardian rule solo encounters. Everything has viable builds, but these are top of the heap.

Guard (Firebrand in particular)- Lots of active mitigation (aegis), self healing, and toughness, all while pumping out plenty of damage to solo champs in record time. Whether it's AOE'ing 10 trash mobs or dropping a champ solo the same build can do both.

Necro- Soaks hits like a boss. Reaper can burst like crazy while soaking the needed hits, or you can do MM necro is basically faceroll and the top choice for lazy PVE.

I'm still going to say mesmer is superior in those regards. They don't take hits hardly at all, have great AoE, misdirect, and their damage is extremely high. In all cases that MM is good, mesmer is better. In all cases that Firebrand is good, mesmer is better. At least IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...