Paragon utility in HM and high lvl PvE

some food for thought! Paragon's are capable of providing substantial damage (cant touch assassins though) on an individual target, can spread a few conditions decently, and can provide some major buffage to the party! I play a paragon every now and again and i really enjoy the way that the buffs help a party in HM and late game PvE. you can be a monk's best friend!

Assassins are more of the "pure damage" type class. They can pretty much spit out raw damage more efficiently than any other class. Compared to assassins, paragons are more of a balanced profession. They can do (single target) damage pretty well, though not as well as a sin, and they can also support the team offensively or defensively in addition to providing healing, energy, and condition removal support should your team need it. All in all, though, I would just choose the one you enjoy playing the most.

Here's the lowdown on Paragons from someone who plays one.
They are great for players who don't normally play with guild members, especially the very common "imbagon" build.

However, for reasons known only to Anet, a lot of end-game content is not friendly to paras. A lot of the War in Kryta and Domain of Anguish content has dedicated enemies (mesmers and necros) that seem to serve no purpose other than shutting down paragons.

Additionally, paras are not favored in human groups for end-game elite missions in any other campaign save for an organized Deep team.

This is due to the current state of PvE actually favoring perma-tanking, massive dmg spikes, and monk based healing.
Protection skills are generally less effective, all but eliminating protection monks from general use.

Additionally, being a Nightfall only character, they do not have access to Prophecies and Factions Elite Armors.

The good news however, paras (usually always an imbagon) are welcome in any main mission of the game HM or NM.

Also there is NO area found yet (working on the UW still) that cannot be beat in NM by an imba and at least one other human player (exempting Urgoz and Deep which need 3 humans minimum) of any profession.

I would say that paragon is a great profession for casual players and people who have busy work and family schedules.

If you are looking to commit hard, max out titles, and get into everything and do anything, whenever; I recommend Assassin or Monk. Necros are usually welcome in almost everything as well.

Right now avoid elementalists (unless you like bonding and lighting yourself on fire while other people fight) and rangers (not weak, just not....yeah).
Dervishes are also currently gimped, but an impending update would make the creation of one not a horrible idea.

Chuckles said it well. Paras are great for general missions, but not in high demand for certain elite areas and are laughed at in PvP. That being said, paragon is my favorite class in all of Guild Wars. Though many say paragons are good for nothing but running Imbagon, I cry BS! Paras can make great best masters, Bippers (feed energy to other players which is needed in certain areas) and can provide amazing support to your team. Given you can't really solo farm anything with a para, but hey... that's why you have more than one character slot!

So I say... GO FORTH AND CHUCK SPEARS!