In your opinion, what's the best overall class in Guild Wars?

Elementalist

They can do basically everything.

Maybe I'm reading that wrong but that sounds pretty harsh. You want to keep your special sauce to yourself, fine. You could have just said so without the douchiness.

I'm casting my vote for necromancer in PvE. Necromancers are extremely versatile - they can run necromancer builds, ritualist builds, even elementalist, mesmer and monk builds if they really want. It's the best e-management in PvE, imo.

I don't PvP very often, but monk and mesmer come to mind.

I'm just going to be different and say Mesmers. Why? Because they own you.

+1 for elly.

My elly can heal or prot better than any monk can in PVE.

Go go Ether Renewal

Ether Renewal > Soul Reaping.

Its easy to prevent it from getting stripped by covering it with something else.

Elementalists.

They have a great mix of damage, control and support with decent range.

They are the most GW2-esque profession.

They are the Protagonists, after all. The ones blessed by all gods.

I second this and if I was going to play GW2 this would be it not that monkagon BML.

passive primary boost > elite skill wasted on the same thing

anyways, my post about derv in pve and paragon in pvp was sarcasm, as nothing could be further from the truth

anyways x 2, in such a subjective question with so few parameters laid out, it's open to interpretation and personal feelings.

Reminds me of when people ask me, what's better, wine from California or from France?

No not really. Necros cant match an elly spamming Shield Guardian / Spirit Bond / Prot Spirit / Infuse Health across the whole party as soon as each skill recharges. They do not have enough energy for it, nor will soul reaping ever give them enough energy back to allow it.

You dont need an elite healing skill when Ether Renewal gives you superior healing with non elite skills.

This is one crazy version of the build, but not the one I use:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYT7fAbAn6A

Mine is:

Shield Guardian / Spirit Bond / Infuse Health / Prot Spirit / Aegis / Ether Renewal / Aura of Restoration / Elemental Lord.

And I have hexes / conditions handled by the hero or hench.

I made a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vF0uouZSls

Lets see necros or monk heal / prot that much

This, Necromancers in close second.

They can heal, support, deal damage. They exceed in those combined categories compared to other classes.

Combined is the key word,

Warriors, assassins, ritualists and dervishes deal much more damage.

Monks can heal or prot better than ele's but ele's exceed in that both of those if they're combined.

Mesmers and necromancers can are the damage dealing caster classes. Mesmers have access to the deadest hexes and powerful primary attribute and necromancers have a huge energy regain which is a force to be reckoned with. But they can't compare to heal and support of an ele.

Rangers are best built for PvP (its true ) and paragons have access to those three categories, but faulters much lower.

Ele's can play all three roles with little to no problems.

It is to bad you don't get the divine favour bonus as we do.Who is going to do the ressing and we only need 1 or 2 heal for a whole party.

most balanced would be warrior primary

^ This, but for the most powerful overall i'd probably say nec.

I'd have to go with Warrior although I've never played an Ele extensively.

Firstly a healer with a res is a bad healer. Divine Favor bonus still doesnt heal for as much as my Infuse does, no other class can spam infuse as much, and monks run out of energy far too fast to keep up with he amount of healing that can be required (Larger / infinite energy pool on a healer >>> DF bonus for sustained healing / support).

If you are ressing then you arent healing. If you need to res a lot, you're doing something very wrong in the first place. I dont really need to rely on much ressing, having heroes handle that when rarely required is fine (a death pact signet and a renew life or two is all I need, plus res sigs on the rest).

Resurrect spells on the human player is an obsolete requirement in GW PVE. I havnt ever taken a res skill since I first started using heroes and realised that I never needed it anymore.

Secondly try looking up what Shield Guardian does. It works as an AoE heal that hits everyone around the target while also mitigating damage (like an AoE RoF or Vengeful weapon). It has a 1s cooldown and IMO make the best AoE heal / support skill in the game for me on this build when it can be constantly spammed.

Also, only using 1-2 heals for a whole party sounds kind of lazy and lame to me, but an elly can manage with just infuse anyway, but I wouldnt ever do that as a diversion / chillblains or something similar would decimate it. As for party wide healing, there are a lot of other builds available too - Heal Party / Breath of the Great Dwarf, and even Extinguish can be added onto this bar. Even a Rit secondary on a couple of heroes with PWK / Life / Rejuvenation is fine as well.

I am able to get through anything in HM using just me with that build and Mhenlo, and prot spells and direct healing is a lot more important than just standing on the spot spamming heal party, which I actually assume is why you think that a res skill is needed on the healer, because when you use that build (healers boon woth no prots right?), I'm quite sure that your party will end up dying all around you.

Also, monks are no where near as good as an 'overall class'. They pretty much only have RoJ for an acceptable damage build, but stationary AoE spells pretty much fail at anything in PVE because the AI never stays in it.

I also have a PVE monk, rit, and paragon. After playing them all, I wonder why I even bothered making them because Elly's still make better healers. If you want to make a more direct healing build, then an E/Rt with restoration spells still pushes red bars up better than most monk builds can (Prism E/Rt > Monk).

Warriors cant swap to a healing role, and IMO the only decent warrior build in PVE now is Earthshaker. Also a derv with a Wounding Strike build backed by a curses necro with ulcerous lungs > Warrior anyday for me.

My personal specific order for the best 'overall classes' would be:

1) Elementalist (can damage / support / heal)

2) Necromancer (As above plus lots of hexes)

3) Ritualist (same again, damage / support / heals. Siphon Spirit = legendary energy management for a support build, and Chiyo in Factions has one of the best henchmen / hero skillbars in the game).

4) Paragon (damage / support, Paraway is very powerful in PVE)

5) Dervish (damage / support, have a lot of brilliant melee and support builds, I like orders dervish a lot, and Wounding Strike)

6) Mesmer (Damage / Shutdown. Major shutdown).

As for monks, only Mhenlo is required as he frees up a hero slot for something a lot more useful.

Meh, with warriors, I forgot about hundred blades / whirling + cyclone axe. But either Earthshaker or a derv is still a lot better for me.

That depends upon what you mean by "best". Best at what? The one you like to play the most is actually the best - it is, after all, just a game.

But, my overall response, for PvE, would be Ritualist - barring any future nerfs.

For PvP - don't know, don't care.

We do not run out of energy as if you read anything about DF is is our E-Mange

That is right which what you should be doing the ressing as i make a point not to put res on.

it is what you should be doing the ressing and leaving us doing what we were meant to do

I know what it does.

It is all we need to keep red bars up and players happy.

i think anyone can get through HM/

They are to and what about SoJ and Monks are the best protection class ever.

I have an Ele that I don't play to much anymore since all this hostilty towards Monks and them not being in GW2 has me hating the Eles class more for taking our jops away from us.

I have read nothing but negative posts on The Guru2 about Monks as we were once adored in this game which I hope this game lives long and prosper and that one dies of dishonorable death 2 proverbs from a Vulcan and a Klingon.





[/QUOTE]

In PVE

Rit for raw versitality (heal or spirits or damage)

Mesmer a close 2nd (Becuase you need to use your head to be effective and its not a button massing class)

This takes into account I do not use PVE skills that often most builds I omit them on purpose to give more challange

Deal damage in HM with their skills?

LOL.

Basically any player that has played both a Necro and Ele in Hard mode will tell you there is no contest.

Mark of Pain + SS + barbs... is like Searing Flames in NM. The only exception is when there is supremely heavy hex removal (use cover hexes).

And saying Eles have better energy management than necros is being blind to facts. ONE skill (ether renewal) does not make a profession. Ether renewal has been nerfed before, hence the term "ether renewaled". You can cover it, but then you have 2 enchants on your bar. What about "Rend Enchantments", "gaze of Contempt", "signet of humility"?

The necro brings more to the table without doing anything with elites. It has weaken armor, barbs, mark of pain, enfeebling blood (bigger aoe and longer duration than "You're all weaklings!"), etc. The entire Necro death magic has nonelites that are useful (Animate Bone fiend, Death Nova, anyone?). Blood magic has blood ritual, Order of pain, blood bond, blood of the aggressor (post buff), Dark fury, Strip enchant (removes 2), Oppressive gaze...

The money elementalist skills tend to be elite, except for Water Magic. (Mind Blast, Blinding Surge, Searing Flames, Unsteady Ground, Ward against melee, Blurred vision, Eruption, Rodgort's Invocation (with dual attunements/mind blast), Deep Freeze, Ether Renewal, etc.)