Which class to play for gameplay variety

[Psytharsis.9087]

Hi all,

I love gw2 but the way I play I get bored very quickly. I don't create alts and like to main a single class. I've been maining elementalist for a long time but I'm not satisfied with the game play variety provided by the specializations; I feel like they're all very similar to each other. This isn't a criticism, just a personal flaw I guess, I get bored and like to switch up gameplay as much as I can (without switching base class).

What class would you recommend to feed my hunger for gameplay variety? I want to be able to switch specializations and completely change the way I'm playing, or at least, the class that would provide this the most for me.

Thanks.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

I think Guardian, Necromancer, Engineer are good options for gameplay variety. 

Warriors are all just melee brawlers with little separating them. Just do you want to get a buff from fighting longer, or from disabling opponents. Or do you to occasionally add some grenade explosions to your sword attacks.

Revenant specs have no mechanic changes. The difference is what special weapon they have and what tools the new Utility skills give you. I think the gameplay differences are subtle here.

I haven't even tried Thief. One is melee brawler, one is a sniper, and one is a support but they're normally all glass cannons focusing on mobility and stealth so I'm not sure if they'll provide the gameplay variety you want.

 

But Guardian Willbender gives you high mobility glass cannon DPS and Firebrand gives you great defensive support and decent damage dealer. Dragonhunter I'm not as familiar with but it can give you a less viable ranged option.

Necromancer has a brawler Reaper, Scourge with tough ranged turret style gameplay, can be DPS or support carrying groups. Harbinger is ranged DPS with resource management.

Engineer has a tough brawler melee offensive support, a ranged defensive support or defense pet spec, and a dynamic resource management spec (I haven't taken the time to try learning how he Holosmith actually works though)

[Ashantara.8731]

Guardian, Engineer and (taa-daa!) Mesmer, I'd say.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Go with Thief.  Daredevils are a flippy brawler type.  Deadeye is an immobile sniper and ranged fighter.  Specter feels weighty and gradual.  

[Xenesis.6389]

Guardian, you get to play every role, and wanted in every group. 🤷‍♂️

[Psytharsis.9087]

Thanks all, I'll take a look at these 🙂

[Buran.3796]

  Guardian, Engineer or Necro. Their F skills change a lot with each spec and the gameplay is really different.

[Jtoon.6907]

Having played them all, I would agree with Guardian and Necro as stated above though for Engineer, Holo is really completely different for me from the rest of the class if you ask me. 

[Wyrm.2840]

Mesmer or Necromancer, from someone who also has played them all. Everyone else plays guardian... Though it fits the bill, meh.

Engineer feels mediocre until elite specs and then feels a little better, but if you didn't/don't care for elementalist with the reason being Variety, I can't imagine Engineer really improving upon that feeling. Advise trying that one last, if you absolutely cannot latch onto Mesmer or Necro.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Wyrm.2840
Variety*, not Versatility

[felix.2386]

necro/rev/guardian/engi

some people disagree with rev but herald is boon buffer/renegade is shortbow aoe condi/vindi is pure dps.

every legend plays completely different to one another and is tailored for that build, literally every build plays differently.

even ele has been quite versatile lately with staff mage, sword dancer, scepter mid range etc.

Edited May 28, 2023 by felix.2386

[Roadkizzle.2157]

2 hours ago, felix.2386 said:

necro/rev/guardian/engi

some people disagree with rev but herald is boon buffer/renegade is shortbow aoe condi/vindi is pure dps.

every legend plays completely different to one another and is tailored for that build, literally every build plays differently.

even ele has been quite versatile lately with staff mage, sword dancer, scepter mid range etc.

My thought with Rev is every class can fill different roles. With elementary you can have a boon support or melee weaver or ranged scepter tempest. 

The mechanics with elementalist are even different from each other. How you build your power and develop your skills differ for each spec.

But the Revenant even though the utility skills and trait line enables you to fill different roles the mechanics for the different specs are all identical so there is less of a difference between the specs than other classes.

[Psytharsis.9087]

Appreciate responses all, thank you! I'm planning on starting a new character relatively soonish so will keep all these in mind

7 hours ago, felix.2386 said:

even ele has been quite versatile lately with staff mage, sword dancer, scepter mid range etc.

I get that in terms on build variety, most classes are quite versatile. It's more gameplay variety I'm after that the elite specs provide. Ele elites are okay, but I feel catalyst doesn't offer too much other than an F5 skill, the other two aren't so bad. 

I'd love a class where the elite changes them a lot, similar to how engi gets a 'pet' golem, or the untamed unleash mechanic changing all the skills slightly, which is kind of similar to ele. I just felt like ele elites didn't change much of the class; we're just adding the extra mechanic into cycling through the same elements. Weaver was probably my favorite but like I said I get bored after a while and like to switch up a lot.

This could all change depending on what they had in mind for adding new tools to classes in the next expansion I suppose, who knows 🙂

[Doggie.3184]

If it's overall gameplay~ filling out your account in all modes, achievements and such...

Engineer has the most build diversity currently and can do anything in all content, has tons of utility options that change gameplay where you can swap in something that will counter any issue, very fast movement, the best leap for jumping cliffs and performing speedrunner skips, a robot sidekick as strong as a second player, tons of AoE.. etc. It doesn't have a lot of weapons though unless you count kits, but at least you'll likely get a lot of mileage off your favorite one.

Necromancer has 3 very-different-from-each-other Elite Specs that are all very powerfuls~ but it's not so exciting in movement/open world transversal. Harbinger gave it a leap now though and it can gain shroud energy out-of-combat for it. Minions pretty much steamroll everything on any spec and you'll always have high survivability and tons of AoEs nomatter which spec you choose. Generally always has a top tier PvP build.

Daredevil is best for map transversal and exploration with it's superior speed, teleports and ability to spam leap over cliffs with it's Staff, and Specter is good at soloing combat oriented achievements that DD is too squish for. Stealth easily skips fights for collections/hero points/mapping/etc. It has low build variety and is too single-target focused though outside of Staff/Shortbow; but it's Shortbow may be the lowest DPS range weapon in-game. Thief is the only class without a group WvW-Zerg role currently too, sadly, but you can annoy enemies solo and finish dailies easy. You also can't rob banks despite the name.

[felix.2386]

On 5/28/2023 at 12:11 PM, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

My thought with Rev is every class can fill different roles. With elementary you can have a boon support or melee weaver or ranged scepter tempest. 

The mechanics with elementalist are even different from each other. How you build your power and develop your skills differ for each spec.

But the Revenant even though the utility skills and trait line enables you to fill different roles the mechanics for the different specs are all identical so there is less of a difference between the specs than other classes.

doesn't matter tho, OP just want gameplay diversity that's not limited only to elite specs.

when every legend plays completely differently, that already covers a huge variety of gameplay styles and elite specs fills the limited amount of void nicely too. like every legend is a unique elite spec in terms of gameplay differences.

like shiro is nimble assasin, mallyx is tanky bruiser, and centaur is mage healer.

legend already covers a huge variety of gameplay styles.

Edited May 30, 2023 by felix.2386

[Moradorin.6217]

If by diversity you mean the ability to play in pve/pvp/wvw and do things like solo most pve content and have flexibility and performance in all of them I would say Engi, Rev, Necro maybe Ranger and Guard too. Ele, Thief, Mes can do it (any can) but I would say they need more skill from the player than the others and will usually require total equipment, build, play style change more than the first ones I mentioned so I would avoid them unless you want a challenge, but your post implies you want to probably use one spec for all modes and things in which case I would avoid Mes, ele, thief.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

10 hours ago, felix.2386 said:

doesn't matter tho, OP just want gameplay diversity that's not limited only to elite specs.

when every legend plays completely differently, that already covers a huge variety of gameplay styles and elite specs fills the limited amount of void nicely too. like every legend is a unique elite spec in terms of gameplay differences.

like shiro is nimble assasin, mallyx is tanky bruiser, and centaur is mage healer.

legend already covers a huge variety of gameplay styles.

And Elementalist gets ranged and melee weapons. They combine and change all of their weapon skills based on whatever element they have attuned. They have the DPS Fire, CC Air, Defensive Earth, and Healing Water.

They have all the utility skill lines that work differently.

Plus the Elite specializations all use the basic variety and change it up in unique ways.

 

Elementalist can be support roles or DPS roles.

 

But that isn't enough gameplay variety for the OP. I think just swapping the utility skills that comprises the Revenant wouldn't be enough.