Most OP/Useful PvE Class?

Title, what is the most op class in PvE and what are the classes that can most easily solo and farm and vanq HM and other end game content alone; or alternatively contribute really well to a team.

All depends on the player.

As far as soloing areas, I would think it would be a ritualist.

2nd the rit...can do damage and heal...

sadly i have to agree with the masses on this one, rits still seem to be more flexible than other classes

Even though it's old, the Imbagon class is high end, at least in party defense. As it stands for offence, with Asuran Scan remade there's no way to tell anymore. I'd say maybe warriors, but the neo-dervs are making a come back. So it could be either way.

Ritualist's 1st, elementalists 2nd, necromancers 3rd and assassins 4th.

Ritualists and Elementalists are more PuG friendly (AKA they can pull the weight of a bad team) as well as holding their own and contribute in organized teams.

Assassins have the highest DPS and best at tanking/farming plus necromancers are very flexible like ritualists.

Pick your fav

Seriously though, it hardly matters since the key to real power are the Necromancer and Ritualist heroes you can set up into a team that'll take care of vanquishing while you sleep

As for "alone" as in, at the head of AIs following you around; melee is a fair bit stronger. You can make your heroes run reasonable casters, you can't make them run reasonable melee, and miss a ton of damage that way. For all-around OP I'd have to vote assassin now, though warrior and dervish are more versatile/less dull and very capable, even melee ranger with pet is pretty good. Assassin also sets you up to tank for various endgame teams if that's your fancy too.

Rit and necro share first place.

@ Zodiac, Elemenatalists above necro? Really? Have you ever seen people use them for VQ?

With AoHM and Asuran changed scythe users fall from first place in PvE Melee.

I'll have to give melee back to the DB sin spammer.

Spirit spammers aren't as good damage pumpers as everyone thinks, rits are only good for splinter weapon in my eyes.

Necros for me, and then eles behind them for spellcaster

I'd say mesmer.... just panic/vor or wastrell spam with rupts ^^

Necro imo, that's why I've been running one for the past few years ^.^

@OP: really it doesn't matter which class you play solo as long as you use certain PvE only skills. Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support, Pain Inverter, and "You move Like A Dwarf!". You said you want over powered and those skills are precisely that. My elementalist bar looked like this when I was playing: Assassin's Promise, EVAS, PI, YMLaD!, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Glyph of Sacrifice, Meteor Shower, Searing Heat, or Energy Blast. You said OP and that is pretty OP because with Assassin's Promise recharging all your skills you get repeatable instant cast Meteor Shower. Bring an Earthbind Ritualist with Soul Twisting and your enemies won't do anything.

I am figuring that you want the easiest way to do VQ's etc, and this is an easy way to do it.

Assassins, Warriors and Dervs are at the top in some order. Sins get Shadow Form. Good stuff may arise from the new derv update. All three kill stuff.
Rits get lol spirits and can easily solo a fair bit.
Eles, Paras and Rits get hilarious defense.
Necs get the best caster damage options through MMing and force multipliers (Orders and Mark of Pain). Also good shutdown options.
Mesmers get good shutdown and some alright direct damage stuff.
Monks can heal and prot.
Rangers can shoot stuff? Maybe try to use daggers?

The position of the casters depends on your personal requirements; Necs may go at the top of the caster bunch or fall behind the Ele. The three melee physicals rule on damage really. Farming options also exist and Shadow Form is ridiculous.

The OP wanted stuff that was overpowered though. As far as i can tell the most overpowered skills for VQ's like the OP wanted are PvE only skills.

Yes? This doesn't change anything and I was taking those into account when I wrote that list. If I didn't, the Para would be down there with the Ranger.

Haven't had any difficulty with a ritualist at all.
Only way to die was being impatient or lazy. Set spirits, shoot an enemy once with a longbow then /dance.
rinse and repeat.
For every enemy and boss.

Solo - rit.
H/H normal things - probably rit.
H/H elite things (as Deep) - probably warrior, then sin.
High-end farming - sin, then warrior and rit.
Discord caller - mesmer.
Hero for general use - mesmer.

Paragons are great when it comes to reducing incoming damage via shouts - google imbagon.
Dervishes are probably one of the strongest and most OP right now, but it's hard to estimate their power, as they got updated just a few days ago. Still, they might replace warriors in nearly every setting, or at least so it seems.

Remember to abuse PvE skills and run complementary builds on runed heroes.

essentially it is more about what role you are trying to fill and which class is the best at it, correct?

I have a few level 20's but havent played since EotN and a lot seemed to have change since then, i wasn't necessarily sure whether the best choice to H/H through HM Vanqs and dungeons would be with my ele seeing as how there is a lot of talk about how they need a redsign for damage, but i suppose that they just fill a different role now.

Guildwars is designed to give every class equal opportunity's. Where design and reality might differ in general they did a very good job. The difference between classes is mainly a difference in playingstyle. Most important question you should ask is what do I like playing and what are my goals in game.

The most versitile of the classes is indeed the ritualist. The can farm almost everywhere (not always very quick), they are very welcome in pugs as damagedealer and supportclass and you are very capable of playing the game with H+H in bom.th nm and hm.

If you want to farm a lot, you might consider a monk, ele, sin or warrior. They have specifick farmspots where theycan solo farm very quickly.

If you want to play in pugs for eg. the daily zm/zb a monk would be the best, considering you are always welcome and there is a shortage of monks.

I can go on and on to outline the difference between all classes, but the basic answer is that it depends on your goals and playingstyle.

As per your OP you were asking which class is seriously Overpowered.

I would not say Ritualist main characters are overpowered compaed to ther classes. Every class nowadays has a Spiritpooper build which dosnt quite deal the same amount of damage the Rit spirits do (No runes to push the attributes above 12), but come very close to it. Rits are prety much bound to their own class except from some gimicky builds whereas other classes are more flexible in what type of build they are running and even what type of playstyle they adapt.

The classes that are currently overpowered are hands down Necros, Mesmers (after the update before last) and Dervishes (after the last update).

If you are looking for a class which you can easily get into any PUG group you want to (including most Endgame areas if you have the builds /knowledge of what you are doing) then it would be Monk by far above any other class. But also note that a bad monk will be very quickly noticed and excluded from the group.

N: AP + MoP (42 damage x number of physicals... with a minion bomber that's 420 damage per volley)
N: any form of minion bomber (Death nova =105 to 115 ; each minion does 40-50 damage on hit unless they are Jagged horrors or Bone minions which do 20-30ish)
Rt: SoS+Bloodsong+painful bond+ Spirit siphon+ splinter weapon (180damage per volley just from spirits)
Rt: ST, Shelter, Union, Displacement (ironically PvP legal...but at full 3-5 second cast times)
Rt: SOGM, Pain, anguish, shadowsong, disenchantment
Me: Keystone sig, sig of clumsiness, unnatural signet, signet of disruption, symbolic celerity, mantra of inscriptions at 11+ inspir
Me: Wandering eye+clumsiness+signet of clumsiness
N: Spiteful Spirit (41 Damage per mob attack easily) x2 (Arcane echo)
N: orders + Strength of honor (+30ish Damage x number of melee)
Me: Panic + whatever skills you want (flexible)
Me: Psychic Instability + whatever skills you want (flexible)
D: Avatar of dwayna + whirling charge + mirage cloak+fleeting stability
D: Pious Renewal + Enchant teardown attacks (i.e. Pious Assault, Wearying strike)
D: Aura Slicer + Reap Impurities
E: ER+infuse health + Aura of Restoration+spirit bond+shield guardian+ prot bond/prot spirit (GDW is optional)
Mo: UA+Heaven's delight+Divine healing
Mo: ROJ + Arcane echo
W: Earthshaker
A: Shadowform
A: Critical Eye + Jagged Strike->FoxFangs->DeathBlossom + Way of the Assassin/Moebius Strike


are not PvE skills :P

P/ : TNTF! + SY!
A/ : Critical agility

all rely on PVE skills

and the poor Ranger is relegated to Barrage basically, which is pretty mediocre without PVE skills such as "I am the strongest!", Ebon Battle Standard of Honor (EBSoH), and Great Dwarf Weapon . Splinter weapon + Barrage can be done better on a Rt/R.

^ What he said. Anything but Ranger. :[

The poor ranger? You've relegated ele to ER prot, which in my opinion is worse than doing what your profession is actually supposed to do. And also in my opinion it's more difficult playing a support role as a main. No matter what profession you choose, you will most likely be able to do more damage than your heroes. Which is why ER doesn't work well for HM (without cons).

So the lesson you should probably take away from all of these responses?

It varies by player.

There's a really great build for elementalists which focuses around using the Assassin's Promise skill... you'll find hundreds, if not thousands of players using this build regularly... and they're all happy to tell you how awesome it is and how nothing beats it.

My primary toon is an elementalist, and I can't use the AP build for sh*t. This is my failing, not the build - I freely acknowledge that. It simply does not fit the way I prefer to play, OR the way my brain works while playing. I'm a frigging genius, literally. I've been an avid gamer since my brother first plopped me down on his lap in front of our Pong console. I WORK in the gaming industry, for crying out loud.

Still can't use the AP build for sh*t.

But I'm able to H/H damn near any area of the game, even in hard mode, because I am good at creating a well balanced and powerful team among my H/H, and I am good at providing support to the team I've built.

I've also discovered that I'm pretty good as a ritualist... tried it out as a secondary, loved it so much I've actually started playing a second toon (something even a few weeks ago I'd have sworn I wasn't going to do) and using it as a Survivor toon. I love it, and I'm having a blast trying some interesting variations on the standard spiritspammer builds.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter who thinks what build is overpowered or perfect for soloing or farming or whatever... the only thing that matters is what is going to work for you and for YOUR play style.

My suggestion would be to spend some time looking at builds on PvX, and then start messing around with them. You may find that you can't play the standard minion bomber build "as is" for example, but perhaps by changing one or two skills in the bar, it becomes wonderfully functional for you.

There is no such thing as a cookie cutter build, or profession, which is going to work for everyone. It simply doesn't exist. My husband, for example, cannot run a spiritspammer build to save his life... the man designs and programs industrial robots... he's brilliant... but he cannot handle "just standing there" while his spirits do their thing. He ends up firing off shots with his wand or bow, and suddenly every enemy in the area is pounding on him and ignoring his spirits. But give him a ranger build, and he can kill stuff I'd be running away in terror from.

"The best" is entirely subjective... take what you've read here and experiment... and then remind yourself that in the end, you're going to find something that works with who you are and how you play, and it's ok if you die a few times in the process.

One thing of note in regards to Ritualists.

If you're NOT in love with the class, and to be fair their playstyle is generally pretty boring offensively, midline and heal they play more like a monk. But ALL of a Rit's playstyles seem very passive to me, especially given their OP spirirts.

But given all that, they can be very OP, HOWEVER you can run a secondary Rit bar quite easily, especially Spirit builds as long as you cart along Spirit Siphon and a +20e staff.

Example: My Dervish has no extra energy on his armor (Windwalker Vigor and attribute runes), and carries around a +20e staff, bringing his energy total up to 45. With a SoS build, including Pain, Vampirism, Bloodsong and Shadowsong, I can lay 7 spirits and STILL have enough energy to cast Armor of Unfeeling no problem. Then Spirit Siphon for energy, wait for spirits to kill, then use Summon Spirits to move them around.

Once the initial "salvo" is up, I only have to replace spirits as they die off, which with AoU and Summon usually means the timer and not due to enemy damage.

And to be fair, Spawning is a pretty lame primary attribute, although it has its uses with weapon spells and Rit/N MMs.

My advice is to pick a class you like the look/emote/armor of, play around a bit, and if all else fails, abuse secondaries.

And to answer your question, at the MOMENT, Sins are Tank-Ballers in Elite PvE content, which can be done also by an E/A, Paragons fill a niche with the Imba builds, Wars are now competing with Dervs for the "manlyway" spikes pitting 100 Blades against Vow of Strength.

But to really be versatile, especially if PUGging a lot, look at the PvX meta builds as thats what 95% of the players in game use as the "baseline" version for clearing areas. Ritualists have one of the top spots, especially Rit/Me with Arcane Echo and DwG, if you go to DoA right now you'll see a bunch of classes as secondary Rits doing Glaiveways in NM.

Let's stop there. I think that spirit spammer is for rits. They can get 13+ stats, therefore are the only ones that need to run it.

The only other class that can actually aid spirit spamming is rangers, due to expertise, but as such rits can manage energy plenty fine, don't use rangers for it.

Granted some classes can out perform another class entirely (Sins/Rangers/Warriors to scythe, not sure due to update though, Eles to monks, etc)

Leave spamming to rits though.