Weakest/Hardest classes to PvE with

I have played every main profession except Necro and Warrior. And out of the ones I have plated assassin seems to be the weakests, followed closely by elementalist.

That is in the strict generic overall concept of the game.

Obviously every prof will have some sort of gimmick builds where they can own a certain map or situation, but in everyday playing situations assassins and eles are the top two.

Surprised to see ritualists so often. Granted I havent played mine too much but the past 3 or 4 days I have, and with a good balance (not the gimmicky builds) they more than hold their own in hardmode.

But my ranger is basically the vanquishing king of all my professions, and REALLY surprised to see so many people name them as a not so good class.

But I think this thread shows one thing ...most people can't think past a build they can't find on the wiki somewhere, so if it isn't there or they can't get it to "work" right then the profession is broken.

But if it isn't sabway, discordway, Rojway, imbagon or whatever other flavor of the month team build then people don't want to hear about it. When in fact there are probably about 50 better team builds out there than these that people just don't or won't share with others.

But IMO from what I have seen in the years I have played this game currently the professions in order of strongest to weakest for "everyday" NORMAL mode PvE, would be...

Ranger
Ritualist
Paragon
Necro(never played one but versatility puts them here)
Monk
Dervish
Mesmer
Warrior (never played one so a guess)
Elementalist
Assassin

But basically it comes down to versatility and what you can and can't do and how many skills they have that go well with other skills and other professions skills. Sure assassins have one major league build that probably 99% of them run, but it is totally reliant on another class to work properly. While an "imbagon" paragon (the other cookie cutter class) can work well with ANY other classes, because they are the one doing the service, not to mention that an "imbagon build" is basically only reliant upon 2 core skills with 2 or 3 more support skills (which can vary a little bit) and so you have 3 free spots to fill in, and even the 3 that are "needed" aren't necessarilly set instone.

Rangers, necros, and monk IMO are the most versatile, with rangers being far and away the superior of those 3 classes. Armor and elemental resists alone make them so. I used to think monks were the top dog, but since playing my ranger,and a few other classes I se how limitted they are these days. They are actually better at solo gimmick builds than overall PvE. Unless you go straight healing or protection, which there are plenty of henchmen that can probably do a better job at than you and most of the live players. So a waste actually.

Ritualists are the anomoly. They are versatile too, but basically some sort of spirit spamming or healing build when it comes right down to it. It just depends on how you use what skills you have. But still no where near the options rangers or necros have. But in normal mode they are far and away right now (even better than rangers) at consistant and fast damage dealing with little to no downtime. Sure necros once they build an army or sit around and regen energy can do damage but ritualists and rangers are non stop, from group to group for the most part with almost zero downtime, especially if rangers are running all ranger skills and have a decent (11-12) expertise rating.

Same with dervishes, they can do a hell of a lot of damage (AOE as well) if you use your enchants and strips in a decent manner. Even if it is putting one on and stripping it off immediately (to give the mobs the debuff), with decent runes, and decent healing they are basically unstoppable even without a shield. And with their semi decent burst damage at the beginning of a fight they can get and hold aggro pretty well on multiple mobs also.

I know this is dragging on, but mesmers deserve alittle love. Almost a forgotten class, but they too aren't too bad, they are good/great at anti caster as well as anti melee, and can in fact do both at the same time. they surely make the shortest work of the caster mobs of any profession that I play. certainly don't woory too much about those Hardmode healers out healing the damage output of some professions and team builds, mesmers basically solo them with 2 or 3 skills. While you can lock your heroes on other targets. That is why I am surprised there hasn't been someone with a mesmer team build, because even tough they are seen as low quality heroes, they make a lot of the epic fights a hell of a lot easier, and against Duncan hardmode they are basically a must have.

Elementalists, simpley way too much time needed to cast, too many mobs with high elemental (regardless of magic) damage diminishing and resists. Elementalist were described as the profession that is supposed to be the highest damage dealer in the game, but right now they aren't in the top 5,(probably 7th) which isn't good in a game with only 10 professions.

This is all based on generic PvE stuff, as in main story lines, random quests, and run of the mill normal mode mobs. Obviously some classes will move up or down in hardmode as well as in other areas of certain campaigns.

But from what I can tell if you want a "challenge" then either elementalist or assassin would be the best option. And elementalist would be top choice because then you wouldn't be so tempted to run a promise build, but with an assassin you won't be getting any heroes all that soon so you'll be relying on henchies alittle longer than an ele maybe, unless you get rushed through and get to kamadan before the "normal" levels of 12 or 13.

For me its the monk. Having to micro heroes while healing and protting is annoying, and they generally perform better (offensively) if you are attacking too.

Agree with Dokky , got a clan mate that told me exactly the same.