Most versitile profession

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I do have to agree here lol

just because Splinter + Ancestors are on ever rit bar out there doesn't make them non-versatile. It would be saying Ranger's aren't versitile due to Savage/Dshot on every bar.

I would go with rits for pve. They can do everthing from splinter barrage nuking, to channeling/resto hybrid builds, pure healing builds, defensive or offensive spirit spamming (although i doubt that is very usefull), minion master, or spirits strenght war/sin/derv/para.

Rangers for pvp though.

Rangers, i said it!

On the surface, I'd have to say its a two way draw.

Ranger Expertise makes them the most versatile class to rely on their weapon. warrior, assasin and paragon; any "skills" become cheap enough for the class to use effectively, and effective cross professions create a class capable of doing some surprising things. Touchers, thumpers, Heal as One HB rangers. Dagger mastery rangers can even keep up with their assassin counterparts.

The only other class that can boast that would be an ele for their energy pool.

On the caster side of things, ele does rein supreme. No spell is denied them, and energy managers allow the class to spam skills other classes would be exhausted by in three casts. Heal Party spamming with (for them) cheap run buffs make eles the best current choice for running flags in GvG. they can spike, they can add to pressure. They can even add support buffs with wards and keep on trucking.

The break even point would be the two classes armor. Rangers have more. This gives them the ability to survive longer, to self manage longer, than their caster counterpart (unless the ele is geared toward a pure self-survivor build which, tbh, is not very useful). When you add interrupts and spammable (now unblockable) snares like Crip Shot, and poison preparations to cover all the conditions the class can crank out (as opposed to an eles hexe conditionss or fire degen, but its hard to have both) the ranger tips the scales back in its favor. last but least, we've got that dirty four letter word for which monk have learneed to hate rangers with such conviction: daze. Its a cureall solution for any caster thats causing trouble, and with double conditions stakcing to protect dazed, its "the" reason why RC is such a popular elite in PvP. Sure eles can interupts. spec some points into mesmer and there you go pretty much. But rangers have this power, deadly ability, naturally. And they can pin down to increase team pressure from the melee characters and AoE, spread degen amoung multiple targets, forcing monks to rely on calls from their team, forcing teams to be vocal about whats on them, forcing players to up their game.

Good rangers in the midline can bring havoc to the other side. They can kill the flag runner. Alone. Assist the spike, assist with pressure. They can even run flags when called to, split into the other teams base. PvE side they can shut down bosses to make killing easy, create serious AoE damage with Splinter Barrage. Eles? Crank out spells. Depending on the spells, depending on the fact that the ranger is busy elsewhere, that can be a good thing.

Ranger was always built to be the jack-of-all-trades class, and the ranger has managed to keep this label from GWP through GW:EN.

So for pure staying power when it comes to cranking out any skill or spell, ele wins. But when you want a truly versatile, hard to kill/catch/survive when you face this toon alone, ranger takes the lead.

The question boils down to this really: which do you prefer playing? Do you want a character that can use "everything"? Or do you want a character that can use...almost everything...well.

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I'd say Rits are 3rd in the lineup. A distant 3rd. Mostly this is due to their builds and Spawning power. yeah, they can heal or AoE. Sure they have spike. But they lack that "other" quality that the other two professions bring to the game: disruption. There's no shutdown in the class worth mentioning (well, okay. We'll mention it: Warmongers. But its so reliant on a good frontline that it becomes less. Shutting down either character breaks the rits disruption, and its easier to shutdown one of two characters than it is to shutdown a single skill.) and they haven't the juice an ele has to borrow from other classes to get it reliably and SP doesn't give them the means to get it. They don't have the ability to solo that rangers or eles do (I know this is a PvE forum, but when speaking about versatility, the best place to see it is in a GvG setting).

they're locked into being rits, a class that "fills holes" in a team build. Thats not a bad thing. Monks are locked into being monks, warriors are locked into being warriors.


GGs

From my definition of versitle it'd be ranger, pve or pvp. While an ele can run a multitude of builds and a necro got several strong builds for a multitude of situations the ranger is the most versitle within it's 8 skills (or at least can be if you pick good ones).

Melody pretty much nails it even tough it's focused mostly on pvp and I'd guess the OP is more into pve. The ranger can add damage, disruption and survival in the same bar. Granted it will often be bested in any one area by other classes it is still very versitle.

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*claps at the above post*

Nice one

hard to add anything to Melody's post i guess ^^

Ranger > * (ok, so i don't like ele's )

Ranger. Hands down, most versatile in game, but not for casting. You can play with any weapon pretty much, and do anything from stance tanking to hit and run, damage dealing, trapping, condition spreading, interrupting...

For casters it's a bit tougher; I'd say that a caster with good energy management is nice; necromancers and elementalists aren't bad for versatility. Elementalists have snaring (water), defensive (earth), conditions (air - blind, weakness and cracked armour) and vary from AoE to single target damage depending; their energy storage/management is nice, and can allow them to pump heal party or whatever is needed. Necromancers benefit from free energy management (especially in PvE) and have nice attribute lines as well, but can use the energy from soul reaping to act as healers, warders, or whatever you need on top of their necromancer abilities.

Ideally mesmers are the perfect flexibility caster, since they are meant to have good energy management, a primary ability that benefits all casters, and lots of meta-magic (Echo, Arcane Echo, Mantra of Recovery...) but in practice their energy management is gimped from others having borrowed it so much. Signet of Illusions offers the mesmer a way to be more flexible than any other caster though, and is worth considering if you really like the idea. It slows things down, as you need to constantly use the signet, but no other caster can crank out max-rank spells (14 with minor, 16 with superior rune) in ANY attribute.

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Paragon is the most versatile class in PvE, imho, followed by short distance by ranger. THEN come necromacers.

Necromancer.

Dervishes are least versatile. In PvE it's just this:

Cast avatar -> cast Eternal Aura
Run to the fight, put enchantments up
Spam attack skills
OMFG MY HP IS LOW -> Mystic regeneration
Repeat

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Define "versatile".

1. Paragon
2. Rit
3. Ranger

Necros and Rangers, (and sure, why not, Elementalists), in my opinion, are versitile when combining them with secondary professions.

Ritualists, on the other hand, are versitile in their own skill lines, rarely needing any representation of a secondary on their bar.

That's my take.

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I see it as the potential number of roles a profession can play in the general game, gimmick builds aside. However, just because a profession can play fewer roles, doesn't make them any less efficient at them.

I'd vote Warrior.

Sword/Axe damage dealer, Hammer KBer, Shout Buffer, Warrior-based Tank, Obsidian Tank, Condition Spreader.

Next up is probably Rangers and Elementalists. I can think of at least 4 roles they take.

The others have 3 or 2 general roles.