Another "please help me pick" thread

[ysnake.3619]

Hiya everyone - it's going to be a longer post, but I would really really love if any of the more experienced players could give me guidelines on what profession should I be looking at next.

 

My main goals are... well... everything really. I do sPvP, WvW roaming, Open World and the least I like are Fractals (do not planning on raiding). 

 

What I am currently playing is a Revenant: namely, Trailblazer Renegede with Viper accessories is truly a tanky ridiculous and easy build to play which makes the entire Open World, Story and anything PvE-related very, very easy. But... I truly find them extremely hard to play in WvW. Condition spam and overly oppressive professions really take its toll on the Renegade (at least for me). Everyone seems to be adamant to play Shiro, but I often find that it is a 1-button stance, where you either port to your opponent or run the hell away and you're simply out of energy - while also not having a good heal, have not tried Ventari build, but seems like only Vallun or some other good players could pull it off (feels like Orianna from League of Legends in a way, and that's a good thing). After trying Herald and having huge success with it... it just didn't feel right. The whole Celestial Herald sha-bam is the double-swap of legends and weapons, meaning you get 4 on-swap sigils procced at the same time and people would just simply randomly die in duels and in 1v2's from the sheer idiocy of spamming those two buttons (along with Mace #2 and #3) - it doesn't feel like I "outplayed" my opponent, moreso that they did not know what will I do and they just died to it - it is not satisfactory at all. 

In sPvP, I am currently hovering around Gold 3/Plat 1 as a Core Shouts Warrior, with a bit of a twist to the build (instead of GS/Axe-Shield, I'm GS/double Axe, catches everyone by surprise to dodge 100b and then get quickness axestormed to oblivion and I absolutely LOVE playing Warrior, but I often find their lack of sustain... unsettling)

 

What I would like:

I would really like a tanky/high sustain profession (such as Trailblazer Renegade in PvE which I was able to solo ridiculous stuff with and always feel safe), but I do not want to wait until retirement until something dies, after countless hours of scouring and playing several classes, I do have some "candidates" on what I find fun or at least "funningly seeming" playing. For WvW, I would really like something that can easily deal with conditions because well... condi spam is utterly and despicably annoying. I would like to play a profession that is constantly trying to pressure and is all-up-in-your-face.

 

Engineer: Prot Holosmith is regarded as a tanky kitten in sPvP - however, Engineers have ALWAYS been a bit clunky to play (I believe that is the exact theme of the class). Question is, how hard is it to maintain the high Holo mode uptime in regards to surviving in general? Are Engineers good as roamers, besides the Grenade spam build that I often encounter? Are they tanky and are there some amazing PvE builds or is it clunky through and through?

What I love about it: the idea of being this annoying thing that is very hard to kill (sort of like an immovable object) and can outplay you with the sheer skillset (am I right about this?)

 

Mesmer: Out of all the builds I saw both metabattle and guildjen, Mesmer's Mirage seems to be on the side of "lul conditions" - but how "tanky" are they? Are you completely punished for making a single mistake (like a Thief is)? Are Mesmers simply outplaying your opponents on their ignorance on how to deal with your condition spam (or the inability to clear it)?

What I love about it: the ease of condition cleanse and being a roamer with access to Stealth, while also being one of the classes that is very annoying to deal with

 

Guardian: Ah, the Celestial Firebrand - Firebrand is literally overloaded with tools for everything, but...  is Firebrand good enough to be a competent roamer? I understand Firebrand is nowhere to be seen in sPvP, but core Guardian support is an actual fun build to play around - and you are left with some cheddar with Dragonhunter power builds. But it feels that unless I "burn" someone down, the Firebrand is almost harmless and its playstyle seems to be on a hit and run, meaning that your burst is kinda telegraphed (most Firebrands I encountered on my Herald went down because I knew what they were trying to do)

What I love about it: The awesome active approach to clearing conditions (with a press of a button, but still), lots of options for sustain and after I die I often find myself in a situation "aah, should've done that" - and that is an amazing feeling to have, since that means I died because of my mistake, however, their reliance on combos makes them telegraphed and they do not want to be oppressive, but rather burst-oriented

 

Also: I do have full Ascended Celestial and Berserker Heavy Armor sets as well as full Ascended trinkets for each one of them - but I am not super limited to "only heavy".

 

Those are... my three options. As you can see, I did not list Necromancers - because they are literally everywhere in sPvP and will most likely (and hopefully) get nerfed. But if Necros are what fit me - freely recommend them (I am all ears really).

 

[SeTect.5918]

I think condi mirage or condi scourge is ur way to go.

[Alcatraznc.3869]

I know Scrapper is pretty tanky however I dont know if it can works with trailblazer. I know I run mine full berserk except for 2 marauder accessories and it can hold its own in both PVE et WvW (though the DPS is a bit on the low side).

Holosmith has the DPS but lacks survivability. I think you can work just fine in PVE but for PVP I cant tell, havent been playing condi PVP on engi since ages.

 

Condi mirage with trailblazer can be very tanky and you can reliably solo content in PVE, that's usually my go to class when I need to do solo champion or stuff like that. For PVP it is recommended, I think but I havent taken the time to properly learn mirage in PvP.

 

And yeah you have necro/scourge that are basically undying gods.............

 

If you're looking for something tanky/undying I guess I can suggest support healer Scrapper, works well in group content like fractal raid or WvW. Mirage condi is a strong candidate too and if you're not running vull viper, it's fine. Your DPS will be a bit lower but you will still provide alac might and fury to your group, however the toughness may mess up with the agro. That's mostly relevant in raid but you never know.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Since you have the heavy gear why not try out a warrior. Trailblazer Berserker/Core does decent and full Meme DPS Berserker can burst a target down if you catch them out of dodges and defense CDs.

Cele works well on a warrior as well if you have any of that laying around that is account bound since it's condi weapons double up as hybrid weapons.

[Buran.3796]

10 hours ago, ysnake.3619 said:

 

 

What I would like:

I would really like a tanky/high sustain profession (such as Trailblazer Renegade in PvE which I was able to solo ridiculous stuff with and always feel safe), but I do not want to wait until retirement until something dies, after countless hours of scouring and playing several classes, I do have some "candidates" on what I find fun or at least "funningly seeming" playing. For WvW, I would really like something that can easily deal with conditions because well... condi spam is utterly and despicably annoying. I would like to play a profession that is constantly trying to pressure and is all-up-in-your-face.

   First of all: the way you deal with conditions as Revenant is using Jalis, Retribution and a staff with cleansing and enegy sigils. That alone would be able to clean ~11 conditions every 25 seconds; if you need more cleansing is because eating the condi burst and then the problem will persist until you learn to avoid them no matter the class or build. Being said that: my fav roaming build with Rev is full zerker power Herald, which is well known for his weakness to condis and lack of cleanses; this evening I fought a signet  Mirage roamer (him probably running celestial stats) and after ~two and half minutes fight I won, so is possible to do well in 1 vs 1 even with that limitations (1 vs n is obvisuly utterly uneven vs condition builds, but being given the same skill no class can 1 vs 2 in this game, anyway).

   Second: what you want is a bruiser, a build which can deliver decent damage while enduring/mitigating/recovering from most of the damage suffered. In my opinion the three best options at the moment in WvW for that role are:

1) Necros (core, Reaper or Scourge), heavily based on fear and/or chill to highly disrupt the gameplay of enemy players. They have high natural HP + shroud bar, and access to unblockable pulsating sources of fear and other nasty conditions. The main con is their mobility.

2) Celestial Weaver: they can tune their protection uptime so long while and regenerating that sometimes are almos unkillable, no matter the class. They have also a plenty of cc to land their burst. Requires piano play and mentat IQ to deal with all the keystrokes and calculations, but once you master it can roast anyone. Burn based, by the way (in both WvW and PvE). Cons: celestial stas not available in PvP.

3) Hybrid Soulbeast: either two bows, shortbow + gs, the classic lb + gs or a mix between shortbow and mele condi weapons; trapper runes. You have mobility and stealth access with either strong physical nukes or even stronger condition burst, and Dolyak stance is awesome in every game mode. Cons: not as powerfull in terms of AoE damage as the previous choices.

[ysnake.3619]

Thank you all for the replies - it seems the choices have come down to:

 

Necro: Being the absolute tank and on-par with Renegade open world god-mode. It also seems the Necro is god-tier in pretty much every game mode, that is a definite possibility.

 

Elementalist: The only downside to the Elementalist that I can see is that... it's hard to play and at times unintiuitive on some of its perks - while also not having an "easymode" in open world for some general funsies, from what I could gather, you always have to bring your a-game - also, does not seem to have god-mode in open world

 

Engineer: While everyone praises the "bruisery" playstyle, they do seem to be finnicky and "clunky" (I mean, that's the whole point of the Engineer), they do seem to be vulnerable to conditions and not as tanky as one could hope - but alas, no god-mode in open world either

 

Ranger: Being ranged is awesome, be it any content - what I remember REALLY disliking was the whole pet stow-swap with the Soulbeast, but that seems to have been changed quite a few years ago.

 

After all is said and done - these 4 professions are the ones I will be primarily looking at. Namely Soulbeast > Scrapper > Weaver - Necros are really an option if all else fails to really grab my attention and love. Thank you all ❤️ 

[Ryou.2398]

Guardian,