TeamQuitter Profession series

[Centaur]

Guild Wars PvP guild TeamQuitter have posted a very nice series of articles in which they provide their own take on all of the known Guild Wars 2 professions. Some excerpts from each of the articles:

1. The Elementalist

Daggers are the most mobile Elementalist set with a teleport, a dash and a hookshot in the form of Ride The Lightning, Burning Speed and Magnetic Grasp. Daggers take advantage of this ability to quickly close in on opponents with many point blank area effects. Use RTL to jump to a foe and hit them with the melee-range Lightning Touch for damage and Vulnerability; switch to Fire and get your target alight with Burning Speed or the utility skill Signet of Fire, then finish off the combo with Flame Touch for bonus damage against Burning foes. The entire sequence takes just a few seconds and ensures the Flame Touch multiplier is triggered while the foe is suffering from Vulnerability. It’s just one example of the explosive Dagger/Dagger style.

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2. The Guardian

The Sword/Shield combination makes an excellent all around combination for one set. It offsets the weakness of dealing with ranged opponents, provides moderate team support, and above average damage. It's a real pain for a ranged character to engage and deal damage before the Guardian closes the distance and takes the fight to his own terms.


The Scepter/Torch combination is a very high damage and low defense option. By using the immobilize from the scepter you can unleash the torches true potential and stack large amounts of burning on your enemy before they have a chance to get away. These two are also great for punishing melee so they combo well with the Sword/Shield set to have both a strong anti melee and ranged build at the cost of survivability.

Alternately, the Mace/Focus is a very strong defensive combination which can combo well with the Scepter/Torch to add much needed staying power to a fight. The Mace/Focus allows you to chain blocks and provides damage absorption and healing.

The Staff would be another great recommendation to go with any of these. It's a real stand alone weapon that provides a number of great abilities without over-specializing. You can add the Staff to any set and it wouldn't be considered a bad choice. The Hammer on the other hand, I would avoid bringing into competitive PvP as it feels like a WvW or PvE weapon at the moment.

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3. The Necromancer

(Weapons

There are no clear winners here. Necromancer weapons all offer a variety of sustained damage, an assortment of conditions, and a mishmash of tools, so pick a set that that compliments your play style. I do recommend equipping a Warhorn on one of your two sets, because that Daze from Wail of Doom is the second strongest control ability available to you after Doom. The Chill/Vulnerability combination from Spinal Shivers on the Focus is particularly useful when fighting with one or two allies that can capitalize on your targets reduced armor and movement speed. The Regeneration on the off-hand Dagger comes from Well of Blood, which has a point blank area effect, so it’s a good choice for defending a location with allies or minions that benefit from the shared healing. Don’t be too quick to take a main-hand Axe for the potential damage – Unholy Feast depends on condition stacks to improve how much damage it deals, so make sure you or an ally come prepared.

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4. The Engineer

Most of the Engineers Utilities are his Kits and Turrets that have been previously mentioned, however, there are a few notable skills that are not in that category worth bringing up. The first are Rocket Boots which provide a huge movement potential for both escape and crossing the environment. No other skill can move a player that large a distance and that quickly. The next is Adrenaline Shot which makes the Engineer move and attack substantially faster than normal for a short time. It's a great skill for getting kills and when used with the flamethrower you can really put out some big damage. The last is Smelling Salts that can be used as a ranged instant resurrection, or to remove all conditions from yourself and allies. An instant resurrection is a game changer and if you time it just right there is a slight flight time so you can use it on yourself just as you die and it will land and resurrect you. This is very hard to pull off but can be done.

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5. The Thief

(Siege, leader of The Spearmen guild and Thief fanatic with PAX experience):

Siege: “Signet of Malice stands out as the lame duck of the crowd, suitable only for an Unload spammer (but fairly effective in this application). I have found both Withdraw and Shadow Refuge to be the best skills on my bar by a long shot. They offer you one of the Thief's two greatest talents: stealth and mobility. Which one you choose will likely depend on your build and particular style, but I have no doubt that high-end PvP will see a great deal of both.”

When it comes to utility, Siege claims to be a real mobility junkie: “I have a love affair with skills like Signet of Shadows and Roll for Initiative. Signet of Shadows grants the Thief a passive movement speed boost, and can be activated for an instant PBAoE blind. Roll for Initiative is a quick, long-distance dodge that breaks stuns and recharges the Thief's precious Initiative. It's a great tool for long fights, especially when using Dagger/Pistol. My absolute favorite skill is Blinding Powder, one of the few support skills available to the Thief. Blinding Powder creates a smoke cloud at a target location which blinds all enemies affected and briefly stealths all allies. While the Thief has a wide array of offensive utility skills ranging from powerful knockdown traps to deadly weapon-applied poisons, I find that their defensive utility skills really make them shine. The Thief is a very fragile class, and without their tricks (and careful positioning) you'll spend more time running back from a respawn than you will sticking knives in people.”

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6. The Warrior

The Warrior has made one of the best transitions from the original Guild Wars in terms of overall feeling. The class is able to maintain its role as a disruptive frontline killing machine while gaining more satisfaction from the high action oriented combat. Like the original Guild Wars, if the warrior is left unchecked he will generate the most damage per second in close quarters. Melee damage in general will be much higher due to the difficulty of staying close to a target and the ample selection of knockbacks, Snares, blinks, and the Dodge ability all enemies have access to. As casters now have the ability to move and cast at the same time this also makes the Warriors job even harder to get his damage in. To prevent endless kiting, combat speed changes based on the direction of travel; forward movement being much faster than backward or strafing movement, allowing the warrior to keep pace with his target. The focus on knockdowns and stuns is still a heavy theme in the warriors play style and there are still skill based abilities like Bulls Charge, which acts like a Bulls Strike from the original with the bonus of quickly sliding a moderate distance. Frenzy also makes its return trading the double damage clause for a long cool down making its use very important at the right times. An Axe warrior under frenzy will kill a target in under 5 seconds so using it well and after the enemy has wasted his blocks/escapes is key.

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7. The Ranger

Jaden: “I think the Sword/Axe combination is an interesting mixed melee set. It’s a very hit and run style where you can jump in on an opponent with serpent strike, do some melee damage, and escape with hornet sting. This puts you at perfect range to hit with Path of Scars from the axe or deflect any ranged attack with whirling defense.

Another option is the Longbow + Axe/Torch, which gives you two Knockbacks to stay at range and use bonfire to make your attacks cause Burning while you stand in it. It's a high damage ranged option that keeps the melee away.

I think my favorite set so far Is Axe/Horn + Longbow. You get a mean spike of damage with using Call of the wild to gain might, then Hunters call to attack them with birds, then change to bow and rapid fire. If you combine this attack with Sun Spirit and Sharpening Stone, you stack a ton of Burning and Bleeding as well. You also get a ton of utility with two Knockbacks and allied Swiftness.”

Stepn: “The longbow is the best-rounded weapon in the Ranger's arsenal at the moment. Long Range Shot is straightforward, like most ranged auto-attacks, but it’s not bad for finishing off fleeing foes since it deals more damage at greater distances. Rapid Fire is the main longbow DPS skill. It’s deadly when paired with preparations like Sharpening Stone to proc conditions quickly. Hunter's Shot applies Vulnerability and buffs your pet, which is a useful opening move. Point Blank Shot is a ranged Knockback, adding to the Longbow’s versatility by interrupting important actions or pushing an enemy out of a fight…or straight into your team. Barrage is a ground-targeted area Cripple that is underrated. With some coordination, I could see it pairing well with other area effect skills from an Elementalist or Necromancer.”

and a reference to the Tap-Repeatedly interview in which Jon Peters clearly stated:

I think the Ranger pets are terrible right now, no one would argue with that! If you wanted to talk about least played profession, the Ranger would probably be it. We’ve been making A.I changes which are slowly propagating to the pets right now, while we’ve also been looking into more radical things with the pets.

Right now the pets feel like this thing you have, rather than a part of your character. Like those other professions that have undergone some radical changes, I’m hoping by the next time we show the game, or certainly before we ship, the Ranger pet will have that synergy. That’s one of the biggest failings we have right now. For those that are concerned, we are also concerned but we aren’t concerned that we won’t fix it, just not right now. We are going to make it feel synergistic, but it just takes time.

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Each of these articles is definitely worth a read...