Quintessential Damage Dealers

I am trying to tempt my friend to join me in Guild Wars. He plays damage dealing classes usually: for example, a Rogue in WoW, a Wizard in Everquest, etc.

Could you recommend some of the high damage class combinations?

I was going to recommend a Fire based El/Me or a Smiting Monk or a Warrior; but I do not know which are the 'highest damage' combinations for him.

Thank you!

ele's are your standard nukers. air has very good single target nuking. fire has quite a bit of AoE, water has integrated snares with their AoE (and its quite fun to use, i got an ice ele myself). and earth can deal damage, as well as adding extra defenses

EDIT
forgot to add this
an easy choice would be Elementalist/Monk. a few points in smiting at the right part of the game can significantly help boost your damage output (missions in kryta anyone?)

The highest damage DEFINITELY comes from the elementalist.

Due to the way the skills are doled out, Fire is kind of the default for the beginning of the game. You get some good skills in the other elements, but IMHO not enough to create a cohesive character at first.

Any casting secondary profession would work well with an elementalist primary.

I have to agree with this, and with the free attribute distributions now, points can be put into smite and taken out as needed. Smite in some areas where double damage can be done is a great help.

if you want 4v4 you cant beat a ranger or a mesmer. I can drop a warrior before he reaches me.

From my understanding Rangers and Warriors have the highest sustained damage, while Elementalists and Warriors have the highest spike damage. With that said, the warrior would be the best overall damage dealer, as you are free to choose from sustained or spike damage as you please. However, many of the damage dealing skills that make a warrior worthwhile come very late in the game.

i dont think warrirs are best and ive played my warrior for around 400 hours, my monk can do way more in pve and im sure my ele can do more then my monk

Let me guess... sword warrior?

Just because a certain build sucks for damage, doesn't mean all builds of the same class do as well.

yes rangers and warriors can deal good DoT (almost constant adrenal/bow attacks respectively) but the biggest damage would come from an elementalist. although a curse/arcane echo necro/mesmer touting Feast of Corruption can spike very well (not to mention no damage reduction against FoC in terms of armor)

Well it all depends on how you use it of course, but eles having the largest energy pool can probably just cast/echo their nuking spells more often, resulting in more damage, AoE or spike. Wars and rangers are usually concentrated on more or less consistent damage. And people usually expect a lot more damage from them (warriors) their first time around playing.

It's true that ANet intended elementalists to do the largest amounts of damage; however, I think that at the current point in time they're not quite cutting it. A properly done warrior can out-damage an elementalist easily, and yes, I have played both classes extensively. The only real reason to choose one over the other is counters, in my opinion. If you're running into a lot of blinds or things such as Ward Against Melee, a warrior's going to be having a very difficult time. However, all it takes is one interrupting mesmer or ranger and an ele can be dead in the water.

As far as PvE is concerned, you're not likely to find enemies that counter either damage dealing builds of the warrior or elementalist variety at all effectively. So in PvE, if you want to deal damage and nothing but, all the time, then you probably want to go with elementalist. Right from the start you'll see the damage. If you want to be the best damage dealer that can adapt to any situation, and you don't care how many hours it takes for you to start seeing that happen, then you probably want to go warrior.

The warrior has by far the most efficient spike damage in the game for the time and energy spent...

I can give you a hint at how he does it...

it's based on his secondary class.....

If you can't figure it out, then I have every right to say you're just a noob...

I can race an elementalist with my warrior and kill foes faster because of 3 things...

Frenzy
Armor Killer + Conditions
Crits...

All with only 15e. cost... and 3s. total damage time from the opening strike...

Don't even think about mentioning counters... For a warrior, he can punch through any defense. For a Spell Caster, Spell Breaker is all it takes...

What about Throw Dirt + Empathy + Spirit Shackles? To this day, my R/Me PvP build has yet to be bested in 1v1 by a Warrior.

Or even Enfeeble + Shadow of Fear, followed by lots of life steal.

I'm really wondering why counters existing against a warrior is being brought up like this. Counters exist for elementalists too. Backfire, Blackout, energy denial, and two full classes worth of interrupts. Do counters prove anything? Not really. Every class, every damage dealing strategy, can be countered. If and when certain counters appear, then they become important. However, you can't say Elementalists are better because Throw Dirt and Enfeeble exist any more than you can say Warriors are better because Backfire and Power Block exist.

I've played sword, axe & hammer, and I agree with him that a monk does more damage faster also than an axe warrior. Warriors are pretty weak in PvE, IMO.

My suggestion for maximum damage dealing: ele-mesmer. For Echo.

I believe you'll find they brought up warrior counters because of the post that Yukito Kunisaki made - about how good his (her?) warrior was and that you shouldn't mention warrior counters because a warrior can punch through any defense. Which of course is a load of doodoo - The warrior might be able to remove 1 condition, but it'll likely just be put back on.. and maybe remove 1 hex before it gets put back on.. but if the warrior is spending his time trying to remove hexes and conditions all the time.. their dps is 0

Ah, I suppose so. I took the "punch through any defense" line to be in relation to the warriors strength attribute and how beneficial that permanent armor penetration is -how it allows a warrior to literally punch through AL. In other words, I read "defense" as "armor." I don't know if that's the way Yukito meant it, but I thought so after the reference to Weaken Armor.

I thought warriors were more tanks then damage-dealers. They're there more to soak up the damage then dish it out. And while they stand in the middle of a crowd of mobs, the ele's hits 'em with his/her AOE damage.

I'll add that I've found a good Necro can do more effecgive AOE damage with negative life pips.

Playing an Ele/Monk, Primarily to heal my friends, I'd recommend an Ele/Necro for the biggest damage dealing in PvE. The Necro's curses are also very varied and can be used defensively extremely well. eg. A rush of Minotaurs on the way to Galrath can be pretty vicious as they're hard to drop and can kill your healer quickly, but slow and weakness effects render them impotent. Plus the Ele's Mana pool is advantageous. As a Necro secondary you don't miss out on anything with Ele as your primary, so you get the best of both worlds.

Edit : BTW this is for PvE. PvP might well be different. Also the mobs seem to have been smartened up in PvE. I used to cast Firestorm and they'd just sit there, but now there tend to move out the way a bit more. My Ele's AOE damage isn't as effective as it used to be.

Hehe, why do you think so many counters exist for warriors? It's because they provide the best source of sustained DPS coupled with spiking capabilities in the game.

Who cares about 1v1? Its only good for testing stuff against someone you know. Throw Dirt, Spirit Shackes, and Empathy are all lousy anti-warrior skills anyway (unless again, the warrior is completley isolated with no team support). Best counters are Ward Melee, Ward Foes, Soothing Images, Shadow of Fear, Aegis, Guardian, etc. And Sword warriors do plenty of damage.

Avoiding all this useless flaming asside, please tell your friend that in GW, he can make a "damage dealer" out of any profession he likes the look of. While its the easiest with an Ele with 16 in Fire, its also complete garbage in specific situations. You need more effort/help with some combos (coordinated spikes etc) and just mindless 1-2-3 spamming with others.

also my friend is considering GW or WoW....you guys have anything i could tell him to sway him to GW?

1: its free
2: more skill based
3: more PvP

Amen to that...

WE can deal with these problems with our monks. We can remove hexes and conditions easily...

Vs. a spell caster. If he's fighting someone with a smartly buried Spell Breaker {E}, he's in 2 words: screwed hard...

As a warrior, we can punch through any problems, like Eonwe said. Remove hexes, remove conditions, and we're good. Hide behind spells, we still hit you... When Spell Breaker is up, caster can't do anything, Warriors can...

blizzard should stick to strategy games and diablo sequals, wow was a dissapointment, tell that to your friend

Thank you for all the replies!

Keeping in mind this build will be to focus on extreme damage (at least the best possible for a nuker), please answer the following:

Based on what I read, I was going to recommend El/Mes:

1. Melee weapon (I see some sword carrying Eles) or standard Staff? And if Staff, are their high damage ones out there? When you are waiting on spells, this is contributing to your damage, I imagine?

Someones said find one that extends enchantments.

2. Fire is the highest damage, but how is the snare spells from water (ice?) on damage? And is there a lot of utility in the snare feature of those spells?

Thank you again!

1. As far as I know, E/Me's are powerful because they have skill which will let them repeat or mimic a spell they just cast. You'll hear people all over in PvE advertising themselves as an "Echo Nuker." Also, Mesmer has some nice anti-interrupt stances that could be invaluable to an ele with such long cast times.

2. Smiting used to be more powerful than it is, but it's still nothing to sniff at. In certain areas of the game PvE enemies will take double damage from smiting... but in certain areas of the game enemies take double damage from fire too.

3. For a melee weapon to do any considerable damage you have to invest greatly in the related weapon attribute. Aside from highly specialized (and in my opinion shaky) builds, no elementalist should be using a melee weapon. Either a staff or an appropriate wand would be the weapon of choice. For elements with longer cast times, I recommend the wand and offhand combination with 20/20 recharge/cast and 20 recharge. It makes an incredible difference. And no, you won't really find any ele weapon that deals an amount of damage worth taking into consideration.

4. I wouldn't say fire's the highest damage. It's the best AOE damage, whereas air is better for single targets. If damage is all you care about, you'll be sorely disappointed with water. However, I can't begin to tell you how satisfying it is to play water. You won't be dealing much, if any, damage, but Maelstrom by itself is such a spectacular spell that I have a hard time understanding why any elementalist wouldn't carry it. Nearly all of water's attack have slow which is usually not used much in PvE, but becomes quite useful in PvP. Snares help a soft target escape an enemy warrior or a warrior land more hits on a fleeing softie. Water Trident is a pretty useful, and spammable, water attack. I think it's the only one I've ever really seen considered as a possible means of attack rather than support.

I'd still suggest a warrior for someone seeking damage, though it seems your mind is made up. I'd never trade my axe warrior for anything when I'm in the mood for big numbers, and I've played the heck out of ele as well. In fact, I played my ele before my warrior, and back then I would have been in the same camp as the majority here that's advocating ele. However, after playing my warrior I got so depressed about my ele's damage (in comparison to why my warrior was doing) that I stopped playing her as an air or fire nuker and switched her to water/air or water/earth support.

This confuses me greatly An Axe Warrior is bigger damage, with all of its lovely armor, than the squishy Elementalist?

I am not debating you because I have no idea: but that just does not sound right

Thank you so much for answering all of my questions in detail, though. Excellent information!

Edit: And what skills/secondary build are you using with your War? I can suggest that one as well. Thanks !

No, it doesn't sound right, and I don't think it is right. ...but that's the way it is. As I said in my initial post, ANet intended for Elementalists to be the big damage dealers, but at the current point in time they're not exactly succeeding at that. Further balance changes giving a buff to elementalists might change this though, so keep that in mind while listening to what I say.

My warrior is usually a W/N, though I switch to W/Mo for farming purposes. Throughout most of the game I used Weaken Armor and/or Mark of Pain to heighten the damage my warrior would output. After getting Eviscerate (imo the best axe warrior skill in the game), I've completely stopped using anything from my secondary and focused on spike damage via Eviscerate. In PvP, where generally the foes are better defended than PvE, I've seen 200+ damage come up in under 2 seconds from my Eviscerate spike. It's a beautiful thing when you're on the giving end. ...the problem is that Eviscerate is one pain to get. Bascially, you can't get it until the very end of the game. Also, the next best axe skill, Cleave, can't be gotten until quite late in the game as well. There comes a point around halfway through the game where the elementalist gets their taste of real damaging spells, but the warrior will be stuck waiting quite a while still until its time comes. During that period of time the warrior will feel lackluster compared to the elementalist. However, after Eviscerate there's no question as to which has the better damage output.

1. For the love of all that is holy; get a ranged Staff or Wand (with Focus). Only very specific mesmer builds can be worth having a melee without a warrior secondary. If you ever get there; you will know, and the weapon's characteristics (except the enchants) won't matter the slightest,

2. As a Water Ele, I have to tell you Fire is much easier, but is of limited interest in PvP. Water is extremely satisfying, but requires a good grasp of the tactics involved in the fight; it can make or break a PvP fight just as well as a Monk does. Conversly, Water is much more limited in PvE. Anyways, your friend is better off starting with Fire, as the good Water spells come much later in the game.

When they're hiding behind ward vs melee, aegis, or guardian (or all three, maybe with a stance thrown in there) how do you punch through? You don't mention anything about enchantment removal, Warriors Cunning doesn't last that long, and rigor mortis can be removed as easily as you can remove blind from yourself.

i like guildwar very much

i like the game very much.