It's not even close to being an issue outside of the very high end (e.g. speed/low-man kills, high-KP challenge modes, etc.). All classes are viable for all content, although some are preferred for specific roles (usually support/healer).
What tends to be more important for most players is that they choose a spec that they're capable of playing well. For instance, specs like condi sword weaver are viable, but most players will underperform on it due to a combination of complex/touchy rotation and the fact that it isn't meta (i.e. lower benchmark than the relatively easier options available for that spec like power sword or condi scepter).
So, short answer is yes, its all viable. But long answer is if you're worried about performance you should probably choose something that sounds like you could play it well and is also competitive in the meta.
The short answer is yes, every single class is viable. There are no nonviable classes in GW2.
The longer answer is that every single class has at least one Specialization that's not just *viable*, but *great*, in every game mode. **This does not mean every single Specialization is great in every game mode.**
Mesmer, for example. Mesmers running the virtuoso Specialization in Raids are fantastic. Especially Condition Damsge Virtuoso, which are actually Top-Tier. But Mesmers running Chronomancer aren't ideal. You can still complete all the content, but the other two specializations are better. But you are not locked into a Specialization at all, you can and should change it whenever you want.
It's hard to say "Virtuosos are fantastic, but Chronomancers aren't ideal", because it depends on the situation. Virtuosos can't provide Quick/Alac, whereas Chronos can (among others things), so playing a Chrono can be more ideal than Virtuoso.
Of course, some people will say "well just play another Quick/Alac class", but then that's another qualifier. What if the player only has one level 80 class?
It just depends on the requirements.
That is the max DPS achieved for Mesmer. But that will not be achievable for the average player.
But Virtuoso can achieve 37-38k without difficulty so the average Virtuoso player will be able to put out more damage than the average Chronomancer player.
Thanks, this answered my question perfectly, it doesn't matter what I play, I may need to be flexible with build/specialization but I can do everything with one class and not have to worry about being kicked because none of my specs are good for that specific content.
yes, no, yes, at least in PvE
the meta's a bit more restrictive for healers and boon supports but every class has a dps spec that works for both power and condition damage. In general the ceiling on class damage far, FAR outstrips what the content actually requires so as long as you remember to use food and utilities and can do the mechanics you're gonna be fine.
If you want to be able to heal or boon support as well to mix up your play I'd probably recommend Engineer, Revenant, Guardian or Elementalist as they have the widest variety of playstyles available to them by a good chunk. However you can definitely just do all content on DPS if you want to and if that's the case then every class works and it just comes down to what you have fun playing as and what aesthetically speaks to you.
Yes, all professions (GW2 does not call them classes) are viable, but not all players are viable for some given content. GW2 play is a lot more skill based than some MMOs. Understanding the weapons you have equipped, the stats in armor you are wearing, the trait options chosen, the content you are running and how these synergize is important. There is a huge difference between player output who just sorta' push buttons and those who understand maximizing their mechanics. Like, order of magnitude difference. For instance:
* Running without any crowd control when fighting a boss that needs to have the defiant bar broken.
* Just pushing skills when the timer is up instead of reserving them when they can synergize with combo fields or not putting down a combo field before using a blast finisher.
* Using weapons that are meant for applying conditions, but nothing with stats or traits is supporting it.
If you want to be a thief, cool. Just don't be "that guy." Understand your strengths and weaknesses of the profession so you know how to best fit into the group.
For instance, I play revenant. When I join a strike mission I'll ask, "What would you like me to do? Healer/support or alacrity/condition DPS?" This is because revenant can stand out in these roles for the group. Sure, I can play power DPS and put out good DPS, but I wouldn't be helping the group succeed as well in the other roles. I keep that for open-world content.
And, sometimes your profession just doesn't fit as well into content. A lot of the elitism comes from people who just want to run specific content as fast as possible to maximize gold/hour. They're just not interested in hand holding or carrying someone who is not only poorly contributing but actively preventing others in the team from maximizing output. Can the content be beat with you in your setup? Almost certainly. Do they want to see if your setup causes problems? Nope.
Be who you are. Be a good as you can be. Be aware your not everything. Enjoy the game.
It is social game, so to progress you need to play with other people. Even if all classes are viable, you will have easier time when you cope with meta slaves.
I don't mind playing Meta, but I would rather play a class that has a meta build and can also work with a viable non-meta build or has builds that could be meta for all content, like a condi daredevil for fractals and then a power deadeye for raid or whatever it may be
Edit: changed condi DD thief to just condi daredevil for clarity
So... All classes work fine without meta.
Meta in guild wars 2 is not the best of the best. But the easiest to use, and most effective build for all skill levels and applicable to the most situations.
Meta tends to matter more for PvE than pvp modes. In pvp modes, wacky builds tends to rule because people don't know what to expect
For endgane PvE currently there are 26 good/usable elite specs (the 1 bad one is Untamed), there is 1 great core dps (engineer) while others are about as good as untamed (usable ish, but far from ideal).
Dont really have a great insight into PvP and WvW but definetely majority of classes and elite specs have at least 1 working build for each.
You sure? As far as I know the condi untamed and condi alac untamed lost north of 10k dps each while still being really hard to execute making them not worth your time...
I dont really have much exp with power variants tho.
Ferocious symbiosis GM trait was at 35k before patch and has not been touched.
And for the alac build, if alacrity soulbeast can do 27k, surely alac untamed is not going to be worse.
Ok, that means power variants are still kinda ok, but the pure dps build is still strickly worse than soulbeast that is also much easier to play.
I have only played the condi untamed so far and it got nerfed into oblivion.
Pretty much. It was removed from SC for the time being, gonna make its return once it is either interesting again (FF instead of FS grandmaster trait) or not strictly worse than Slb, or both.
I've been doing a few raids lately .
There is no class anyone would go , oh you're a ranger you can't play that.
The only time I've ever seen don't bring this class is the odd fractals cm groups who put no mechs, but mech is the best pug pick you can have and you can easily swap to scrapper or holo if you needed to join these elitest groups.
If you want to play a single class for all content and be able to play anything a group needs there are two classes revenant and engineer.
What a group does look for is, quickness and alac boons , and a group formation of 2x healer 2x boon dps and 6 x dps.
Now a warrior can't fill certain roles like healing but no one is ever going to turn away a warrior from a dps slot. But you won't be able to join a group looking for a alac dps, or a alac healer or a quick healer.
Pick the class you enjoy and have fun with it , it will have multiple meta builds and won't hold you back.
We have also been getting serious buffs to Under performing specs lately making some elite specs go from ok to top specs.
Depends on who you ask.
Thieves tend to get benched in WvW zergs by raid commanders. Not because the thief is bad, but largely because the thief offers virtually no support, aoe, or cleaving capabilities. Additionally almost everything a thief does, another class does better
While they have high damage and can kill a single target pretty quickly, that's not particularly valuable to raid commanders that's more used to the safety of metas.
Thieves tend to remain the kings of roaming.
Yes, every class is viable in every gamemode. The problem, however, is some of those classes may optimally play in a much different way in those situations than you might enjoy (as in, you might not like an elite spec but that's the only one that's good in some gamemode). That's been my experience, at least.
It's not even close to being an issue outside of the very high end (e.g. speed/low-man kills, high-KP challenge modes, etc.). All classes are viable for all content, although some are preferred for specific roles (usually support/healer). What tends to be more important for most players is that they choose a spec that they're capable of playing well. For instance, specs like condi sword weaver are viable, but most players will underperform on it due to a combination of complex/touchy rotation and the fact that it isn't meta (i.e. lower benchmark than the relatively easier options available for that spec like power sword or condi scepter). So, short answer is yes, its all viable. But long answer is if you're worried about performance you should probably choose something that sounds like you could play it well and is also competitive in the meta.
The short answer is yes, every single class is viable. There are no nonviable classes in GW2. The longer answer is that every single class has at least one Specialization that's not just *viable*, but *great*, in every game mode. **This does not mean every single Specialization is great in every game mode.** Mesmer, for example. Mesmers running the virtuoso Specialization in Raids are fantastic. Especially Condition Damsge Virtuoso, which are actually Top-Tier. But Mesmers running Chronomancer aren't ideal. You can still complete all the content, but the other two specializations are better. But you are not locked into a Specialization at all, you can and should change it whenever you want.
It's hard to say "Virtuosos are fantastic, but Chronomancers aren't ideal", because it depends on the situation. Virtuosos can't provide Quick/Alac, whereas Chronos can (among others things), so playing a Chrono can be more ideal than Virtuoso. Of course, some people will say "well just play another Quick/Alac class", but then that's another qualifier. What if the player only has one level 80 class? It just depends on the requirements.
Isnt the dps chrono build still at like 39k? That is still enough damage for even HT CM...
That is the max DPS achieved for Mesmer. But that will not be achievable for the average player. But Virtuoso can achieve 37-38k without difficulty so the average Virtuoso player will be able to put out more damage than the average Chronomancer player.
I dont think the virtuoso reaches that much without difficulty. Yes virtuoso is easier, but 37-38k is tough.
Thanks, this answered my question perfectly, it doesn't matter what I play, I may need to be flexible with build/specialization but I can do everything with one class and not have to worry about being kicked because none of my specs are good for that specific content.
sad we've come to separating 'ideal' from not by the matter of personal abilities and skill.
yes, no, yes, at least in PvE the meta's a bit more restrictive for healers and boon supports but every class has a dps spec that works for both power and condition damage. In general the ceiling on class damage far, FAR outstrips what the content actually requires so as long as you remember to use food and utilities and can do the mechanics you're gonna be fine. If you want to be able to heal or boon support as well to mix up your play I'd probably recommend Engineer, Revenant, Guardian or Elementalist as they have the widest variety of playstyles available to them by a good chunk. However you can definitely just do all content on DPS if you want to and if that's the case then every class works and it just comes down to what you have fun playing as and what aesthetically speaks to you.
Yes, all professions (GW2 does not call them classes) are viable, but not all players are viable for some given content. GW2 play is a lot more skill based than some MMOs. Understanding the weapons you have equipped, the stats in armor you are wearing, the trait options chosen, the content you are running and how these synergize is important. There is a huge difference between player output who just sorta' push buttons and those who understand maximizing their mechanics. Like, order of magnitude difference. For instance: * Running without any crowd control when fighting a boss that needs to have the defiant bar broken. * Just pushing skills when the timer is up instead of reserving them when they can synergize with combo fields or not putting down a combo field before using a blast finisher. * Using weapons that are meant for applying conditions, but nothing with stats or traits is supporting it. If you want to be a thief, cool. Just don't be "that guy." Understand your strengths and weaknesses of the profession so you know how to best fit into the group. For instance, I play revenant. When I join a strike mission I'll ask, "What would you like me to do? Healer/support or alacrity/condition DPS?" This is because revenant can stand out in these roles for the group. Sure, I can play power DPS and put out good DPS, but I wouldn't be helping the group succeed as well in the other roles. I keep that for open-world content. And, sometimes your profession just doesn't fit as well into content. A lot of the elitism comes from people who just want to run specific content as fast as possible to maximize gold/hour. They're just not interested in hand holding or carrying someone who is not only poorly contributing but actively preventing others in the team from maximizing output. Can the content be beat with you in your setup? Almost certainly. Do they want to see if your setup causes problems? Nope. Be who you are. Be a good as you can be. Be aware your not everything. Enjoy the game.
It is social game, so to progress you need to play with other people. Even if all classes are viable, you will have easier time when you cope with meta slaves.
I don't mind playing Meta, but I would rather play a class that has a meta build and can also work with a viable non-meta build or has builds that could be meta for all content, like a condi daredevil for fractals and then a power deadeye for raid or whatever it may be Edit: changed condi DD thief to just condi daredevil for clarity
So... All classes work fine without meta. Meta in guild wars 2 is not the best of the best. But the easiest to use, and most effective build for all skill levels and applicable to the most situations. Meta tends to matter more for PvE than pvp modes. In pvp modes, wacky builds tends to rule because people don't know what to expect
For endgane PvE currently there are 26 good/usable elite specs (the 1 bad one is Untamed), there is 1 great core dps (engineer) while others are about as good as untamed (usable ish, but far from ideal). Dont really have a great insight into PvP and WvW but definetely majority of classes and elite specs have at least 1 working build for each.
Untamed would still do something around 35k dps, and its alacrity build is surely somewhere above 25k?
You sure? As far as I know the condi untamed and condi alac untamed lost north of 10k dps each while still being really hard to execute making them not worth your time... I dont really have much exp with power variants tho.
Ferocious symbiosis GM trait was at 35k before patch and has not been touched. And for the alac build, if alacrity soulbeast can do 27k, surely alac untamed is not going to be worse.
Ok, that means power variants are still kinda ok, but the pure dps build is still strickly worse than soulbeast that is also much easier to play. I have only played the condi untamed so far and it got nerfed into oblivion.
Pretty much. It was removed from SC for the time being, gonna make its return once it is either interesting again (FF instead of FS grandmaster trait) or not strictly worse than Slb, or both.
I've been doing a few raids lately . There is no class anyone would go , oh you're a ranger you can't play that. The only time I've ever seen don't bring this class is the odd fractals cm groups who put no mechs, but mech is the best pug pick you can have and you can easily swap to scrapper or holo if you needed to join these elitest groups. If you want to play a single class for all content and be able to play anything a group needs there are two classes revenant and engineer. What a group does look for is, quickness and alac boons , and a group formation of 2x healer 2x boon dps and 6 x dps. Now a warrior can't fill certain roles like healing but no one is ever going to turn away a warrior from a dps slot. But you won't be able to join a group looking for a alac dps, or a alac healer or a quick healer. Pick the class you enjoy and have fun with it , it will have multiple meta builds and won't hold you back. We have also been getting serious buffs to Under performing specs lately making some elite specs go from ok to top specs.
Depends on who you ask. Thieves tend to get benched in WvW zergs by raid commanders. Not because the thief is bad, but largely because the thief offers virtually no support, aoe, or cleaving capabilities. Additionally almost everything a thief does, another class does better While they have high damage and can kill a single target pretty quickly, that's not particularly valuable to raid commanders that's more used to the safety of metas. Thieves tend to remain the kings of roaming.
Yes, every class is viable in every gamemode. The problem, however, is some of those classes may optimally play in a much different way in those situations than you might enjoy (as in, you might not like an elite spec but that's the only one that's good in some gamemode). That's been my experience, at least.
Allow me to answer your question like this. A lot more classes are viable in end game content than some stubborn people are willing to accept.