What Class Used to be Common to See but Now is Rare to See?

[OliverIngram.8729]

With Engineer seeming becoming more common than Guardian now, it makes me curious what classes used to be common to see but now aren't. I know there's a site that shows statistics for what is most commonly used and what isn't but that's more of "all time" not of "the last few months or so"

[Einsof.1457]

chrono 

[Infinity.2876]

mirage, scourge, bladesworn, chrono, holo, specter, weaver.

 

 

Edited March 14 by Infinity.2876

[Randulf.7614]

I use spellbreaker, weaver and core guardian in open world

So, prob those…

[AliamRationem.5172]

All core specs, berserker, druid, deadeye, chrono.  I don't see these specs much.

[Kain.9136]

I rarely ever see a Druid minus the single one I see in WvW.  It's a very boring class that relies on Core spec too much imho. Needs a look into. Also for it to be a "Time" class, Chrono doesn't feel like one at all. Mirage has better Alcarity uptime than Chrono but I see they nerfed Chrono Alcarity to the ground so that's probably why I don't see any. Rip lol.

Edited March 14 by Kain.9136

[Dr Meta.3158]

In spvp:

Firebrand, core warrior, core revenant, renegade, core engineer, specter, core mesmer, scourge.

[Doggie.3184]

Thief rarely exists in any mode anymore. I do 50 man squad boss trains and 50 man WvW squads all the time and I'll often be either the only one or one of very few. Almost never see them in Fractal Dailies, Strikes or Raids either. It's reached it's lowest population in history these past years I believe. Specter revived it for a little while and there were a lot playing it but seems like most people moved on from it at this point, (including myself~ back to Daredevil). Cuz I rarely have Specters join my PvE groups anymore (and it died out in WvW an even longer time ago). It doesn't help when the last few balance patches gave it nothing new/fun, no bug/mechanic/QoL fixes, gave it nerfs and it literally had 1 single line of text from the first hyped up 'big' balance patch.

Engineers used to be pretty uncommon cuz of the uncomfortable playstyle that is "Kits," and the fact Holosmiths kill themselves, but now they've exploded considerably in population thanks to them being the first really good pet class and certainly brings back GW1 feels of having an NPC ally that actually has a large impact on fights. Guardian is still insanely common though and if one isn't around it's asked for. Every group and subgroup in PvE and WvW is fulla dependants for Firebrand like it's a drug addiction.

Warrior has gone up in use/presence recently but for a while they went extinct which was surprising as they used to be Anet's 2nd favorite class after Guardian. I think people are finally starting to like Bladesworn, even though I still can't take it seriously till it fixes it's Gunsaber posture with full Samurai animations. XD Warrior still pales in comparison to how common they used to be though.

[Dr Meta.3158]

11 minutes ago, Doggie.3184 said:

Thief rarely exists in any mode anymore. I do 50 man squad boss trains and 50 man WvW squads all the time and I'll often be either the only one or one of very few. Almost never see them in Fractal Dailies, Strikes or Raids either. It's reached it's lowest population in history these past years I believe. Specter revived it for a little while and there were a lot playing it but seems like most people moved on from it at this point, (including myself~ back to Daredevil). Cuz I rarely have Specters join my PvE groups anymore (and it died out in WvW an even longer time ago). It doesn't help when the last few balance patches gave it nothing new/fun, no bug/mechanic/QoL fixes, gave it nerfs and it literally had 1 single line of text from the first hyped up 'big' balance patch.

Engineers used to be pretty uncommon cuz of the uncomfortable playstyle that is "Kits," and the fact Holosmiths kill themselves, but now they've exploded considerably in population thanks to them being the first really good pet class and certainly brings back GW1 feels of having an NPC ally that actually has a large impact on fights. Guardian is still insanely common though and if one isn't around it's asked for. Every group and subgroup in PvE and WvW is fulla dependants for Firebrand like it's a drug addiction.

Warrior has gone up in use/presence recently but for a while they went extinct which was surprising as they used to be Anet's 2nd favorite class after Guardian. I think people are finally starting to like Bladesworn, even though I still can't take it seriously till it fixes it's Gunsaber posture with full Samurai animations. XD Warrior still pales in comparison to how common they used to be though.

Daredevil and spellbreaker are both charged with the crime of holding every other thief and warrior specialization back by Virtue of being thief+ and warrior+ respectively.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Core anything.

[Sarm.5923]

2 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

All core specs, berserker, druid, deadeye, chrono.  I don't see these specs much.

Is there anything a core Elementalist can do that the elites don't do better? I remember initially being turned off by the elites because I didn't like how I was feeling penalized for preferring being at range, between Tempest's overloads and Weaver's Primordial Stance being close range abilities.

Not to mention how frustrated I felt when learning one was "the designated DPS spec" and the other one relegated to support. Felt like it left the vanilla class feeling incapable of having a use of its own.

Edit: Don't know what Catalyst is like, though. Still don't have EoD and the class looked conceptually stupid to me, between the jade sphere, the hammer's skill 3 ability not being fun at all when I tried it during the beta, and how awful Elemental Empowerment sounds to play with. I've heard people refer to it as Core+ but gameplay-wise it sounds like a Core- elite instead.

Edited March 15 by Sarm.5923

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

Class in general 🍸

[AliamRationem.5172]

50 minutes ago, Sarm.5923 said:

Is there anything a core Elementalist can do that the elites don't do better? I remember initially being turned off by the elites because I didn't like how I was feeling penalized for preferring being at range, between Tempest's overloads and Weaver's Primordial Stance being close range abilities.

Not to mention how frustrated I felt when learning one was "the designated DPS spec" and the other one relegated to support. Felt like it left the vanilla class feeling incapable of having a use of its own.

Edit: Don't know what Catalyst is like, though. Still don't have EoD and the class looked conceptually stupid to me, between the jade sphere, the hammer's skill 3 ability not being fun at all when I tried it during the beta, and how awful Elemental Empowerment sounds to play with. I've heard people refer to it as Core+ but gameplay-wise it sounds like a Core- elite instead.

That's an issue with the central design of elite specs.  Presumably, the elite spec is paired with the first and second-best core trait line for whatever your purpose.  Even without considering the weapon unlock, the exclusive utility set, and whatever gimmick comes packaged, it's a lot to expect the third-best core spec to be competitive with the elite.  I expect if they added those exclusive features to the core spec, you would see a lot more of them in play.  But as it stands, you're going to have a tough time being the best at anything on most core specs.

Is catalyst "core+"?  It's certainly stronger!  In terms of playstyle, though, I think the rotation is less flexible.  It's more similar to weaver in that sense.  You are forced to rotate through the attunements.  Core is more similar to tempest, in my opinion.

[Fueki.4753]

I've seen many, MANY more Warriors in the past (especially pre-HoT) than I see these days.

Edited March 15 by Fueki.4753

[prototypedragon.1406]

Warriors have become  the unicorn of the classes I rarely see them in wvw anymore. When I do, I challenge them to a warriors duel using my core shout build 10 years in use rocking the mace spoon and shield with the pillow hammer to fight for warrior supremacy.

[Omega.6801]

In terms of Raids/Strikes I'd say Berserker and Chrono, maybe add Dragonhunter to the list. When Banners were still a thing for their unique boons, hardly any raid group went w/o a warrior and the go to spec for it was berserker. Now that banners are dead, yu don't see them anymore and in terms of damage, our warrior main friends switched to Bladesworn. Same with Chrono, it was huge for its utility and the boons it provided, but since we have more specs to chose from to provide said boons, Chrono fell out of fashion. Dragonhunter used to be "the easy power spec" which is why you saw them regularly in pugs. Now there are other specs that are just as low intensity but bring significantly more damage and/or utility to the group.

[Astralporing.1957]

18 hours ago, Sarm.5923 said:

Is there anything a core Elementalist can do that the elites don't do better?

No. But then that's not just about ele in specific - all core classes are like that.

 

[Gibson.4036]

31 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

No. But then that's not just about ele in specific - all core classes are like that.

 

Core ranger, necro, and guardian have still had their moments in various metas.

[Astralporing.1957]

16 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Core ranger, necro, and guardian have still had their moments in various metas.

Had being the key word here. This changed as soon as each profession got their second espec however. This was primarily because the first especs for some classes were either monofocused at something that was outside of core specialty (Druid being a heal/support, so not contending with dps roles of core), or had some weaknesses compared to core (reaper being melee, which was a bit of a downside in SPvP). Notice, btw, that the third case (guardian) was in reality mostly theoretical, as it required very high aegis upkeep in order to be (very slightly) better than corresponding DH build.

Basically, core classes can be better at something than one (or sometimes two) of their especs, but will never be better at anything than all of their especs - one of the especs will always end up being better. The best core specs can hope now nowadays is to have uses where they are not lagging behind too much. Also, notice how some especs go beyond enhancing some of the roles available to core, and are flat out straight upgrades to their core profession.

[Gibson.4036]

53 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Had being the key word here. This changed as soon as each profession got their second espec however. This was primarily because the first especs for some classes were either monofocused at something that was outside of core specialty (Druid being a heal/support, so not contending with dps roles of core), or had some weaknesses compared to core (reaper being melee, which was a bit of a downside in SPvP). Notice, btw, that the third case (guardian) was in reality mostly theoretical, as it required very high aegis upkeep in order to be (very slightly) better than corresponding DH build.

Well, I remember people playing core guard shout and core necro in PvP not that long ago, well after HoT and PoF. Core ranger also holding it's own against SB for general use for quite a while. 

Those were definitely all pre EoD.

[Astralporing.1957]

4 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Well, I remember people playing core guard shout and core necro in PvP not that long ago, well after HoT and PoF. Core ranger also holding it's own against SB for general use for quite a while. 

Those were definitely all pre EoD.

Being able to hold out or being present in the meta is not the same as being best at something. Yes, some core classes can still be played in some types of content and roles. Playing espec is always going to be a better choice, however.

[Noah Salazar.5430]

in pve you rarly see  hqs (heal quickness srapper)

ppl are usualy suprised when i pick it for fractals t4 or strikes/raids

then thay are even more suprised how easy it is with one around 😄 

Edited March 16 by Noah Salazar.5430

[Gibson.4036]

Poor Specter

[draxynnic.3719]

15 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Being able to hold out or being present in the meta is not the same as being best at something. Yes, some core classes can still be played in some types of content and roles. Playing espec is always going to be a better choice, however.

Core guardian is still a better sPvP support than any of the elite specialisations. I think tempest is considered the best sPvP support overall at the moment, but there are things that core guardian support does better than support tempest. Considering the actual thread topic, there is a huge gap between 'not regarded as the absolute best' and 'you don't see it' - it's still a competitive build.

Edited March 16 by draxynnic.3719

[Cuks.8241]

18 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Playing espec is always going to be a better choice, however.

Not in spvp in some specific cases. Core guard probably the best example. Top dog support basically up to last few patches when it was arguably outpaced by tempest. Core ranger, necro and thief also emerge and outpace their elite brothers and sisters from time to time.