Came back after a year. What's the most OP class to play now? (PvE)

[torakun.9638]

Hi guys, 

 

I just go straight to the point here. As the title says.

 

There has been so many patches since, and I got lost while reading the patch notes.

 

Please kindly rank them in order of 1 to 3 if you'd be so kind. I will tinker and read about all of the 3 

 

thank you in advance 

 

cheers!

[Bobzitto.8571]

https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks

[Ashen.2907]

1) Mechanist

2) Mechanist

3) Mechanist

[Duglaive.5236]

30 minutes ago, Bobzitto.8571 said:

https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks

I'd love to see how many players can actually manage to do what it takes to hit that top benchmark, heh.

As to the question, I believe the answer depends on game and intent, e.g. : PvE (over world or instanced); WvW (zerging, small man, or solo roaming); and sPvP. And whether you'll always solo or play with others.

You'll get better answers if everyone knows that info.

[AliamRationem.5172]

32 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

1) Mechanist

2) Mechanist

3) Mechanist

Accurate.  ANet class balance at its finest.

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

1 hour ago, Bobzitto.8571 said:

https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks

irrelevant. OP means a completely different thing. If Mechanist can pull +30k with just auto-attack, then that's OP. Also, those meme numbers mean nothing in the real world.

[Sunchaser.9854]

I think the stark class balance difference is so warped for mechanist vs everything else, engineer players sometimes complain loudly about scrapper, which allows them to do all roles (alac mechanist, healing alac mechanist, dps mechanist, barrier + might + 50% quickness uptime + teleporting + range mechanist + 25% movement speed mechanist, as well as Quickness scrapper to have the role versatility to provide pretty much every role if needed. (Though usually a quickBrand takes a spot).

Engineers going from mechanist to scrapper will then complain about "hypocrisy of non mechanist players not asking for scrapper buffs", but.. Scrapper is closer to a normal non mechanist spec than most specs are to mechanist, and even then, i think last time i checked, scrapper still had a 10%-20% higher benchmark on dps  than my class's quickness option at 24k solo dps, 27k 'group dps', vs scrapper's 30k bench.

So really it makes you wonder. If going a mechanist to scrapper, a class that can still deal 10-20% more quickness dps at 30k than other's 24k-27k quickness classes is so bad, how can they not see the irony of like, overly convoluted rotations?

But regardless if you want a easy time, play mechanist. Most famous mmorpg rotations have a reputation for 1 button, pressed 40 times in a row to be as silly as possible such as a wotlk arcane mage before evocation as it had a spell that doubled in damage (but tripled in mana cost), in a expansion where mana didn't matter. (Infinite ramping damage for 1 button, 40 apm).

It was seen as a joke, but it was only like 30% ahead most average joe specs and still a glass cannon that would run out of mana after 2 minutes and need to evocate to regen 60% of mana. 

Mechanist can do 28k dps afk or pretty much press 4 lit buttons off cd to 35k, and some people have figured out ways to do 35k-38k with it. The average joe players are usually hitting 1.5k-20k dps, (some.. interesting players somehow do 0.2k-0.5k, probably random affix gear / core spec/ healers hopefully(???) ) It's considered good in a strike if someone is doing 15k-26k dps. So pretty much mechanist engineer can almost bring every role in the game (and switch to scrapper to do quick if it wanted. Though most mechs can't always play scrapper since it's closer to a non mech piano class with potentially punishing higher apm switches to keep track of to hit it's bench).

But if you want easy rewards for easy effort, it's a 5-9 dominant class by far, taking up both 4-9 slots of every 10 in pugs and 5-8 slots of every challenge mode run to the point a spec that should be 3-11% of population represents something like 40-66% of all successfully completed challenge mode content. 

There also be minor hints that it also might be facetanking abilities that one shot eles with 20% hp reviving and also might have like +50-100% more passive healing and barrier regeneration WITHOUT using healing abilities than other classes(??), but that's just speculation, but it supposedly self heals 500 hp a second while one of my specs 4.5k hp heal over 30 seconds (150 hps) is considered a good ability.

So not only does it do dps well with minimal effort, it also does it from 1200 range and might also literally be able to afk through one shots, still continue dpsing while dead (pet is like, 40-60% of dps and the other 40-60% is autoattacks/ability use). it also might be possibly(??) autohealing itself 1.5x-3x better than other classes just off passive regeneration and surviving ele one shots with 20% hp (and then autohealing to full(?)), and i'm not sure what's going on. But it's a all reward, no investment class that's mained by a balance dev.

The last 'nerf' nerfed it from 35k dps to 35k dps and nerfed the barrier while buffing another self healing abilty so..

Yeah, unless you're a apmjesus it'll dominate and even for challenge mode raid content, because melee specs typically might lose 10-40% uptime in a moving fight and torment condi specs do 40% less damage to moving targets, it does well too and there might be some hints it's heavily front loaded in cd damage too as during the first few seconds of a video it spikes 60k-160k first second damage during the first 2 button presses(0:08->0:10), while condi usually slowly ramps up 5-10k -> 15k -> 20k -> 23k -> 25k -> 27k -> 30k over 20 seconds..

the engi will probably frontload it 100k first second dps during the first second and kill it before the condi ramps up, or ignores dps loss from a invulnerability phase or torment movement, (small as it may be), eating away potential 10% dps edges with -40% torment dps to movements or melee dps running. It also self generates 50% quickness and might if your group isn't the best at 100% uptime boons either as well, apparently. 

There's a reason it dominates like 40-70% content for a reason, it's easy to play, generates shields, runs faster, has massive range, also might literally survive one shots that kill eles with 20% remaining, and might also have 1.5x-3x higher self healing just off passives alone. Also has 100% alac builds (high demand) as well as healing alac builds (uber high demand). The only catch is it does this all while pretty much afk and autoattacking or pressing 4 buttons. Not that people who play it feel like it's a problem. Just, the other 8/9 classes don't feel that rewarding and mechanist is kinda tuned to the point people abandon 10 year old toons just to be 'relevant' in content i guess. But play what you find fun. 

[Artemis.8034]

38 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Accurate.  ANet class balance at its finest.

Not really plenty of classes do more damage, i mean numbers dont lie

[Sunchaser.9854]

Sure. In a golem scenario where range, uptime, invulnerability phases, boss stability, self healing, teleportation, heavily front loaded damage, and raid vs golem results as well as ability to provide boons to a 5 man group aren't needed sure.

Even though they represent like 40-66% of all challenge mode or 40-90% of all pug content or up to 80% of raid groups for challenge modes cleared if you want, the other 20%-60% of the raid is still viable to be non mechanists. That's very true. Just what should be like 3-10% of a class representing like 40-66% of content doesn't mean the other 60-90% can't all be part of the other 33-60% of remaining slots. 

You can play what you like, but for one class, it's all upside, zero risk, all the rewards and boons, and even when it's nerfed it doesn't lose any damage vs a ele or a warrior nerf or banner removal. Even when mechanist does get nerfed, it goes 35k to 35k dps or nerfs it's self healing by nerfing barrier and then buffing boomer. Just being willing to try content and do it well can often get a spot, but there's often a difference between a raid boss that tries to instakill you if you look at a piano rotation for one second vs a class that can go out to microwave burritos and survive the ele one shotting one shots with 20% hp left and autoheal through all damage passively while also teleporting or moving with +25% movement speed if it wants to. 

It just doesn't have a drawback except everyone plays one. Closest i've heard to a drawback is the mech 'makes jumping puzzles harder' 😛 So. Yeah. All pluses, no drawbacks, except i think people get bored on the spec sometimes. Since a rotation is how you interact with the game and well if the game plays itself for you, some people get bored, other people love that.

I think the 4 button rotation still is about 30-33 presses per minute, so it's not that bad i guess. I've yet to see a soulbeast dominate as much real content in practice like a dps golem on paper though. I think their rotation gets entirely wonked and it's not that unusual to go into raids and seeing the first non mech vs mech being 15-23k dps vs 35-38k dps gaps. It's a mouse clickable rotation so, whatever floats someone's boat i guess. 

[Artemis.8034]

6 minutes ago, Sunchaser.9854 said:

 

I think the 4 button rotation still is about 30-33 presses per minute, so it's not that bad i guess. I've yet to see a soulbeast dominate as much real content in practice like a dps golem on paper though. I think their rotation gets entirely wonked and it's not that unusual to go into raids and seeing the first non mech vs mech being 15-23k dps vs 35-38k dps gaps. It's a mouse clickable rotation so, whatever floats someone's boat i guess. 

But its not a 4 button rotation , you have to go into grenade you have to time the golem skills , and condi mech is def not a 4 button rotation . If all you do is 4 buttons on a raid boss as a mech your dps will be in the toilet.

[Sunchaser.9854]

 

It seems like the difference in ability use between two power mechanists, one autocasting their mech abilities, and doing a mostly 4 button rotation with grenade kit, and a snowcrows rotation is a 35k-35.5k vs 36k difference, about a 1.4%-2% dps difference, though it is unclear if the other person is using infusions on their gear. 

For the condition spec sure, a 37k difference is +2% potential dps but might open itself up to damage clipping or parts where the spec will punish itself if not properly snowcrows performed. If by going to the toilet you mean 98% of your dps vs 0-10% of most other classes, then sure. the mech doing 98% of the potential peak of damage without any risk of 10-40% dps punishments for suboptimal presses is in the gutter. There's always a skill gap but it's a class that can do only 1.4% less dps than the snowcrows bench for very little investment while also autoregenerating hp, surviving ele one shots, being given the option to teleport, wait a few seconds on using cds, has no auto attack chains it needs to manage to do the bench, as well as no weapon swap + stance or attunement swaps. Though yeah the kits are closer to most other classes or engi etc.

It's one of the only classes you can go for a bathroom break and get a +20k dps bench for going afk and range and instant power and 28k dps for the autoattacking part and 7k dps from abilities isn't much to sneeze at in a game where suboptimal rotations on other classes may only result in 20-40% dps for 90% of the average population or a red splat on the floor of the eles and bladesworns who focused too much on rotation and went splat to the one shot the engineer didn't even know they afked through and autoregenerated their hp through. It's represented in 40-90% of pug content and 40-80% of challenge mode content for a reason.

It's a class that doesn't really punishing inactive play and it has good performance without the punishment while also having great boon coverage, sturdy self healing while afk, and also good ability to take range and do mechanics while ranged. While most other classes just get one, but not the others. 

[torakun.9638]

Huh.. really? Engineer?? wow.. would never guessed that correctly.

 

I guess they now got a buff huh.. let me study the patch notes on them then. 

 

Any other that got raised from obscurity? 

[Mell.4873]

34 minutes ago, torakun.9638 said:

Huh.. really? Engineer?? wow.. would never guessed that correctly.

 

I guess they now got a buff huh.. let me study the patch notes on them then. 

 

Any other that got raised from obscurity? 

Careful picking Mechanist since there is a good chance they will nerf the upfront power damage. In terms of the playstyle is it generally classed as support dps since it has alot of boons hense one of the reason people don't like the Mechanist spam Meta. 

Otherwise honestly pick a playstyle rather than the best class since everyone has a build that can do well in end game content, even Elementalist for its problems. 

Edited August 30, 2022 by Mell.4873

[PzTnT.7198]

For this ill have to say mechanist right now. Super easy to play and does a lot of damage without needing to juggle kits etc. This lets it have a lot of utility on top of the damage and the mech tanks quite well if you're trying to solo stuff.

Ill enjoy it while i can myself, but once the inevitable nerf of the mech itself comes down ill probably swap back to holosmith.

[Doggie.3184]

Mechinist; so much so that I finally abandoned my Thief  I clung to for 10 years that they still wont allow to have AoE nor allow most of their weapons to be useable in PvE for it~

Edited August 30, 2022 by Doggie.3184

[AliamRationem.5172]

5 hours ago, Artemis.8034 said:

Not really plenty of classes do more damage, i mean numbers dont lie

Actually, they do.  Mechanist defenders will wave the snowcrows benchmark banner all day long, but the truth is mechanist doesn't play by the same rules as other classes.  It has range and a mech that never stops attacking.  That's how a merely competitive benchmark becomes a dominant top tier DPS in actual gameplay.  Everyone (including mech defenders) knows this.

[fatihso.7258]

Quote

What's the most OP class to play now? (PvE)

 

 

One Rifle Mechanist to rule them all, One Rifle Mechanist to find them, One Rifle Mechanist to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

[Gibson.4036]

Play all the professions. Switch when the patch notes tell you.

If you pick the current OP profession, you’re setting yourself up to be nerfed.

Unless you play Guardian. Then you’re safe.

😄

[Farohna.6247]

9 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

1) Mechanist

2) Mechanist

3) Mechanist

And did we mention...mechanist!  

Mow your enemies down in a blaze of jade glory.

[Farohna.6247]

1 hour ago, Teoman.9713 said:

 

One Rifle Mechanist to rule them all, One Rifle Mechanist to find them, One Rifle Mechanist to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

Or blind them, there are soooo many mechs.

[Fueki.4753]

Sadly, it's not the profession that deserves it most: Warrior

[Bobzitto.8571]

9 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

Sadly, it's not the profession that deserves it most: Warrior

 

Sadly, it's not the profession that deserves it most: <insert main here>

[the krytan assassin.9235]

The current meta classes are engineer, Guardian, mesmer and necro. Pick any of these and you'll be fine for PvE/WvW. 

Non meta classes will do the job aswell, but it'll take alot more effort, and often perform subpar. 

 

[Farohna.6247]

1 hour ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

The current meta classes are engineer, Guardian, mesmer and necro. Pick any of these and you'll be fine for PvE/WvW. 

Non meta classes will do the job aswell, but it'll take alot more effort, and often perform subpar. 

 

Or be a very helpful support class and let the others roll their face on the keyboard lol.  I've been having a lot of fun doing exactly that. 

Ultimately, those are the preferred meta classes.  Guardian gets nerfed the least.  But whatever you choose OP, makes sure you ENJOY playing it.  Being meta and not having fun is just a bore.

[soul.9651]

Mechanist, firebrand, virtuoso