Looking for tanky teamfighter that's easy to play

[Grey.8719]

I main Willbender and am looking to diversify my portfolio to fill the gaps that Willbender can't, but also to fulfill the multiple professions to complete The Ascension achievements. I have all expansions up to EoD and am looking to pick up SotO in the near future for the weapon mastery.

I know easy is subjective, but I find Willbender easy to play. Something along the lines of Willbender that has combos is ideal. My rank is Gold 1.

[Terrorhuz.4695]

You're G1, so a lot of options are actually viable. You might try hammer vindicator, all forms of reaper, maybe some scepter cata, condi specter, even scrapper with hammer and grenades. Just have fun and take care of your positioning, you should be good to go.

[shion.2084]

4 hours ago, Terrorhuz.4695 said:

You're G1, so a lot of options are actually viable. You might try hammer vindicator, all forms of reaper, maybe some scepter cata, condi specter, even scrapper with hammer and grenades. Just have fun and take care of your positioning, you should be good to go.

he said tanky team fighter... so not scrapper 🙂. The only way its at all relevant (power variants, cause condi scrap is a meme)  is if your running almost all damaging traits (Zerker army, scholar rune (maybe maybe scrapper)).   So you will not be tanky.  If you build at all tanky you'll be irrelevant.

In anything close to a meta build you will be extremely susceptible to CC and will not be able to withstand condi.   So in short if you want a tanky team fighter do not look at scrapper.   or build some super off meta build that other classes could do better.

Ele is not easy to play... but its worth investing in for a team fighter that can stay alive.

Edited June 17 by shion.2084

[Terrorhuz.4695]

Bruh it's g1 we're talking about, you can play scrapper and get away with it

[Gotejjeken.1267]

2 hours ago, Terrorhuz.4695 said:

Bruh it's g1 we're talking about, you can play scrapper and get away with it

Not in NA.  Top 250 is ~1380 atm, g1 isn't too far off from this and will get matchmade with Top 250s anyway.  

This isn't 2015 anymore where p1+ has any meaning 😂

[Marckan.9526]

1 hour ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

Not in NA.  Top 250 is ~1380 atm

Whaaat?! Is this for real or, do I have to check my late night sarcasm meter?

[Grey.8719]

12 hours ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

Not in NA.  Top 250 is ~1380 atm, g1 isn't too far off from this and will get matchmade with Top 250s anyway.  

This isn't 2015 anymore where p1+ has any meaning 😂

This explains a lot.

And is there a certain ele build you recommend?

[Sahne.6950]

1 hour ago, Grey.8719 said:

is there a certain ele build you recommend?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAgilJwyYNsFGJOyPftdA-D6YfGJoA6VCYzTAAA   <- Teamfighter

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAs2lZwyYasLGJOyPvtfA-D6YfC28EAAA  <- Duellist

You are probably looking for something like this.  

Edited June 18 by Sahne.6950

[shion.2084]

17 hours ago, Terrorhuz.4695 said:

Bruh it's g1 we're talking about, you can play scrapper and get away with it

absolutely... you can do well with it... you just won't feel like a tanky fighter which is what he asked for.

[ArthurDent.9538]

Tanky and teamfighter tend to actually not go together all that well. Tanky builds tend to have "all my friends are dead syndrome" as they sacrifice stuff like damage and team support to get their tankiness which are extremely important to prevent enemies from just focusing the more fragile members of your team.

[ccccc.4963]

On 6/17/2024 at 12:27 PM, Grey.8719 said:

I main Willbender and am looking to diversify my portfolio to fill the gaps that Willbender can't, but also to fulfill the multiple professions to complete The Ascension achievements. I have all expansions up to EoD and am looking to pick up SotO in the near future for the weapon mastery.

I know easy is subjective, but I find Willbender easy to play. Something along the lines of Willbender that has combos is ideal. My rank is Gold 1.

Spb / reaper all variants / untamed 

 

[Frequency.6407]

S-tier

Untamed, druid, DH

A-tier

Vindi, scrapper, reaper

B-tier

Ele, spb

C-tier

Guardian, mesmer

Meme-tier

Staff daredevil

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

Condi reaper or hammer vindi. Nothing else comes close.

[Gotejjeken.1267]

2 hours ago, ArthurDent.9538 said:

Tanky and teamfighter tend to actually not go together all that well. Tanky builds tend to have "all my friends are dead syndrome" as they sacrifice stuff like damage and team support to get their tankiness which are extremely important to prevent enemies from just focusing the more fragile members of your team.

Agree with this, teamfighters are basically DPS now and are 'tanky' through boon application or kiting ability.  This is why most thieves while on 'roamer' builds are consistently at mid picking people off.  

1 hour ago, Frequency.6407 said:

S-tier

Untamed, druid, DH

A-tier

Vindi, scrapper, reaper

B-tier

Ele, spb

C-tier

Guardian, mesmer

Meme-tier

Staff daredevil

Reaper would be S-tier, and put Holo at A.  You forgot D/P DD and DE, which are also A.  For probably like B/A in low gold would also be Specter.  

Meme-tier is mech.  

Edited June 18 by Gotejjeken.1267

[WhoWantsAHug.3186]

On 6/17/2024 at 10:27 AM, Grey.8719 said:

I main Willbender and am looking to diversify my portfolio to fill the gaps that Willbender can't, but also to fulfill the multiple professions to complete The Ascension achievements. I have all expansions up to EoD and am looking to pick up SotO in the near future for the weapon mastery.

I know easy is subjective, but I find Willbender easy to play. Something along the lines of Willbender that has combos is ideal. My rank is Gold 1.

Well you could just pick up Dragon Hunter. It fills a different archetype to willy with different strengths and weaknesses. That being said, I'm personally an advocate of multiclassing to break up the monotony of it all. maybe you share perspectives. This game has been homogenized so much over the years that at this point, pretty much every class has a tanky build that's not too difficult to play, but I digress.

Quick disclaimer: I will not be discussing revenant in my suggestions, cause kitten Dat class

I'd say there are three solid options for a 'tanky' teamfighter that are both relatively easy to pick up, yet have cool synergies within the kit that feel satisfying and combo driven. Basically a moderately high skill ceiling with room to improve. Willbender is more or less a zugzug spec in that it's kinda braindead and lacks finesse. The first 3 specs I'll mention require a little more though process, yet I'd considere noob friendly. 

Condi reaper - there are many build paths to choose from. Pair either Death Magic, or Blood Magic with Curses for tankier variants. Curses + spite provides more damage, but is suboptimal when compared to the tank specs and seldom ran. Speaking to it's versatility, there are many nuances to the build path to better tailor your success bases on enemy teamcomp. For instance, rabid ammy makes you EXTREMELY hard to take down VS full power team comps. Keep things like this in mind when playing condi reaper for the best results. This is THE strongest build in the game ATM IMO. 

Spellbreaker - typically ran as a side node spec, but is formidable as a teamfighter when running hammer specifically. Hammer is a versatile weapon in that you can pair it with pretty much anything power based. My favorite is Hammer/greatsword with Defense + Discipline and zerker ammy. Stability spam renders this spec useless, so never play it VS a core support guard. 

Shadow Arts Deadeye - the hardest to play out of the three with by far the highest skill ceiling. I'd consider it easy to play at a baseline though. That might sound contradictory, but it's because it's just extremely strong right now and deceptively hard to kill. Also pewpewing from afar is easy enough. The skill cap comes from its plethora of combos and versatility of your non damaging skills and utilities. The number one tip for picking up deadeye is utilizing all of your stealth sources effectively to both proc your traits and maintain that 'tanky' factor. Stealth spam is what makes deadeye so extremely hard to lock down. Practice and get clean with your kneel -> smoke wall -> stealth port combos. 

 

HARDER OPTIONS TO PLAY BELOW

A fourth option would be a few variants of dagger/focus elementalist. Support tempest would be my go to spec for ease of learning. Although it's considered a 'support' build, in actuality it's played as more of a Frontline bruiser with moderate damage contribution. You're mostly focused on your CC, healing, and aurashares via overloads, but it's damage is still very relevant. Bonus points: dagger/focus is about to recieve some very strong buffs come the june 25th patch. 

There are a few more damage oriented elementalist variants such as Lightning Rod  builds with Cata or Weaver. I can't personally speak to it's effectiveness in the meta cause I don't play it, but I'd consider those 'tanky' teamfighters. Tempest in general has a lot of build paths and it's the easiest ele elite spec to play, with weaver and cata having moderately high skill floors. 

Ranger is probably the most versatile class in the game, fulfilling many playstyles with a huge variation in gameplay across it's elite specs. It has a huge finesse factor and not  straight forward to play. Finally, It has by far the most flexibility in build paths; every talent tree brings worthwhile contributions to an overarching spec/game plan. There are too many things to cover on Ranger and it's higher skill cap in general is why it's so low on my list.

  Briefly I'll mention rangers most willbender like spec: Soulbeast. Power soulbeast is near and dear to my heart and maybe my favorite build in the game. Its harder to play and requires huge finesse factor to fully utilize your pets, both merged and unmerged. However i consider this build quite tanky teamfight/roamer, so it matches your criteria. The standard setup is skirmishing + beast mastery with sword/warhorn plus X weapon. I prefer longbow, but greatsword is more popular option. Both are viable. Soulbeasts Eternal Bond trait and smoke scale pets are non negotiable requirements for this spec. Take these every time. For my second beast, I prefer any pet that has the Unflinching Fortitude merged beast skill, but most players will opt for any beast that has Prelude Lash merged skill instead. Unflinching Fortitude greatly increases survivability. 

Yes, I have a few more suggestions for mesmer lol. Sorry for the long response. You mentioned wanted to complete an achievent playing all classes, so im trying to run through a variety of options. That being said, I saved mesmer for last because of its skill requirements(pink class highest skill ceiling). Condi Mirage is a tanky teamfighter/roamer that's extremely rewarding to play. I'd consider this spec both hard to play and hard to master. An easier to play option would be power virtuoso, which is fortunately about to recieve a complete gamechanging buff in Ether Feast(heal skill) on June 25th. Power mirage is currently the strongest DPS spec, but is both hard to play and not tanky, however it's the most fun IMO. 

 

Metabattles.com resource for anyone who might not know

 

Edited June 18 by WhoWantsAHug.3186

[WingSwipe.3084]

On 6/17/2024 at 5:27 PM, Grey.8719 said:

I main Willbender and am looking to diversify my portfolio to fill the gaps that Willbender can't, but also to fulfill the multiple professions to complete The Ascension achievements. I have all expansions up to EoD and am looking to pick up SotO in the near future for the weapon mastery.

I know easy is subjective, but I find Willbender easy to play. Something along the lines of Willbender that has combos is ideal. My rank is Gold 1.

You are looking to play Reaper, dont waste your time with other suggestions.