ButterOfDeath.2873

A lot of the traits that used to reduce cooldowns now feel a bit underwhelming in my opinion, but i like that direction, as otherwise it feels really bad to not pick those traits up and similarly it'd feel bad not to use those utilities. Signets of power for example seems iffy to pick just for 1 initiative when using signets (which we usually would try not to use), same with manipulations giving aegis, cool effect but super niche. For thief i hoped to see some buff to scorpion wire too alongside the other tricks as it doesn't really see much use. Daredevil having steal makes it core thief but better, swipe was originally added as a way to give it a tradeoff by losing range, i would've just removed the unblockable instead. I'm not sure if the shadow meld change is for the better, while yes it does counteract the main counterplay to stealth it's also an otherwise tame effect for an elite skill and made a lot of sense for it to break that rule. Personally my biggest gripe with thief is how mandatory picking trickery feels in most builds between the added initiative limit and reduced recharge on steal, i'd love to see a few touches in that regard next time. For bladesword i think having projectiles on skill 1, 2 and 3 means projectile reflects will be extremely punishing, i'd perhaps keep the first skill melee only (bit odd to have projectiles pop out of nowhere while swinging it around). In general i like the notes a lot, i'm sure other players have more insightful comments on the rest!

Very valid points, especially that last bit! Organically learning to group mods together is a huge boon. I'll make sure to suggest necro first to them, thank you a lot for your input! Definitely the best weapon variety, although it's a profession that really doesn't click for me outside of strict pvp, i've never been able to satisfyingly deal with pve content as a warrior, even with builds picked straight from metabattle meant for hard solo pve content. I thought between sword and judge's intervention that it had quite a fair bit of mobility with the old mediguard build, but then again last time i saw someone play that build firebrand was meta (what happened to it?) Necro does seem like a perfect fit for pvp in almost every regard, especially with scourge easily covering control points.

True, as long as i enjoy what i play it's all good, although once i settle with something i get intense fomo vibes going on, which is what has been keeping me from choosing a main for all this time. Builds for leveling are no problem, i'm mostly thinking of how the profession i pick will be when experiencing the rest of the game at full level. True when it comes to leveling and open world, but when it comes to endgame activities (pvp,wvw, raids and whatnot) core feels strictly worse for me. While mesmer, thief, guardian, necro etc all have some upside and downside that may tip core over the edge in some cases. Having 1/3 trait lines locked into either elite spec would harm build variety for me. I thought guardian was quite viable in pvp, between the bursty builds with meditations and bunker/support builds being meta both when i left and now. Litany of wrath alone makes for a compelling case in pve content when it comes to soloing hard fights too. My test of choice for pve performance was to defeat the blue lord in the spvp lobby (both soldiers, both casters, the lord itself, before they can respawn), professions that can pull it off with the (usually) worse spvp skill tweaks probably would crush all open world stuff. Thief, guardian, revenant, necro all passed it easily enough, mesmer almost (a bit too low dps wise vs the lord to keep up with the healing in time for the weaker mobs to respawn), ranger very inconsistent, engi, warrior and elementalist didn't pass it in a satisfying way. Your point on wells being a staple in wvw builds sounds very accurate. Appreciated! In fairness going necro and leaning on minions isn't that far off as a ranger hiding behind a pet and using a bow, i think. Although it's definitely something i'll have to keep in mind, especially for lb4. Thank you for the heads up ^^

Hey thank you for your tips, really appreciated! Very good points with build, i hadn't considered bringing very low level weapons on a max level character either. I'd imagine stats like apothecary would be spot on, focusing on condi damage is a fairly subtle way to handle content since it takes time to ramp up. Engi is perfect on paper but i can't bring myself to fully endorse the profession, due to how its mechanics are made it's bound to have skills that may not fit in a build, plus not having a kit feels rough outside of holo. I've had a fair bit of fun playing d/d celestial ele back in the day, but it's tiring after a bit, lots of keypresses haha. I've bound f1-f5 to alt+q/e/r/f/c which helps, especially for toolbelt shenanigans on engi, but it's still a lot of work to play the class. When it comes to picking a profession that happens to be able to buff and support my friend i think all can do a fair job to some degree. Guardian can heal, buff, add swiftness and tank which is handy. Thief can stealth, blind enemies, share poisons and teleport them around with the new preparation skill. Mesmer could speed them up, offer targets for the AI to focus, also stealth them and provide buffs with staff, plenty of reflects as well. Even necro has a smidge of support here and there (spectral wall, well of blood, minions drawing aggro, some traits to heal with). So in that regard i think any profession would be OK, it'll boil down to which i think is the most varied. Although knowing i don't necessarily have to get a new character is very very handy. ^^

I thought core revenant was quite bad compared to the two elite specs, the F2 ability doesn't seem worth it at all. I'm not too worried about what the profession can accomplish, for example i don't mind that thief can't bunker in spvp and i'm not a minmaxer per-se, so stuff like invigorating precision seems like a great deal. In the pvp lobby i could just dodge and spam staff1/2 against the blue lord, killing everything before they respawned and surviving through the lifesteal alone. Quite neat! What gets me is when i look at something (a trait, an utility skill, whatever it is), build around it and don't get "good enough" results. So for example if i pick thief and someday i think "kitten, seal area looks sick, i should build around that", if everything i come up with is kinda sucky, then that'd be a bummer. Thus far guardian is looking like the best candidate honestly, there aren't many things that feel way too good or not good enough, but it's hard to tell without spending a bunch of time with each profession. ^^

The plan for them is to pick an easy class, probably ranger or necro, it'd be their first mmo and they're not fond of having too many buttons to worry about. Picking the same class would be neat, but each of us having our own thing going on has its appeal, i should know every ability in the game by now (aside from reworked stuff) so i can help them out if they don't know how things work or what to pick. My main issue is that i know what the professions can do and if i wanted to be able to do as many things as possible the engineer would be the easiest choice with ranger close second, but it's hard to know which ones feel limited when coming up with builds. With engineer it's awkward since core feels worse than the elite specs and while the breadth of things an engineer can do are massive, how many you can cram into a build before it falls apart is also a limitation. If there's a skill i like (like going full toolkit with static discharge) i may have to pick one i may not need in that build (like rifle turret, which is useless but happens to have a great toolbelt skill). So for me it's less the breadth of what the profession can do and more how flexible each build can be.

I'm a terrible altoholic, i started playing day 1, i currently have a character for each profession and to this day no main, all leveled in pvp for the most part. I played the game on and off and now i may be able to introduce a new player to it, the plan is to get a new character slot (hopefully it goes on sale with the anniversary) and level up alongside them. However, while i normally can just switch character nonstop, it'd be nice to stick with one while playing with them, makes for a more fun narrative. Now, i know all the professions to a decent degree, but i've been away for a long time so i'm clueless in terms of balance, hence the question: Which profession has the best variety in terms of weapons, traits, abilities and specializations? Meaning which profession has the least "mandatory" or "useless" elements, across all modes? What i like to do is to focus on a weapon/trait/utility skill and build around it, rinse and repeat. I'm fond of being able to fulfill different roles as well. In general, if something feels mandatory (think trickery, shadowstep and shortbow on thief spvp) or too niche/weak (think most engineer's turrets) then it's way more likely for me to find cases where a skill/trait i like isn't worth building around, or where it's too much of a drawback not to pick something. This is especially true for specializations, i'm not fond of professions where elite specs are always preferred over core (eg: why pick core ele over tempest or weaver?). I think mesmer, thief, guardian, necro and ranger are the best in that regard, but that's literally half the professions so it doesn't solve my doubts. I've been most fond of thief and mesmer (love the mobility and stealth, lots of fun shenanigans), guardian (bunker and bursty with meditations, it's fun to become a projectile and teleport in people's faces with a hammer) and necro (mostly power with wells, worked wonders in spvp back in the day). I've tried meta builds for other classes recently, using open world ones vs the blue lord in the pvp lobby and pvp builds in regular pvp. Guardian, necro, thief, revenant had no problem with the former, while ranger, mesmer and engi were not as consistent due to how quickly the mobs spawn. While for the latter i really enjoyed guardian, thief, mesmer, necro and revenant (core stinks though). Ranger didn't feel as good as it used to, same with engi and ele, but especially warrior. So all in all i like most professions a lot, which is my main problem. Any help to narrow it down is heavily appreciated. ^^