The Elite Specializations That EVERYONE Plays In Guild Wars 2

I know I’m a year late, video just randomly popped up but Specter is so underrated. Thief is my least played spec in 12 years of playing, but it could be my favorite playstyle in the game.

Reaper feels good until you get your hands on harbinger. Harbinger is absurdly tanky and does amazing dps without a lot of thingking it’s just a “random bullshit go!” Class where you press everything as it comes off cd

I play what thematically feels RIGHT to me, regardless of whether statistically it is viable or meta. Elitists can deal with it, idc. If I chose to pick up an ILLUSIONIST class/profession, then I EXPECT the playstyle of that of an ILLUSIONIST. Same thing for ALL the other classes/professions.

This list started off RIGHT at the beginning, as what I expected from what my exact personal choices would've been leading up to the video. Only up until near halfway the list did the community choices derailed, and defied ALL my expectations, when I expected the choices SHOULD'VE been the total opposite from what were chosen here...

Like... seriously!?! The community actually chose HERALD over VINDICATOR!?! Choosing an elite spec that invokes ONE legend over the other for the price of TWO!?! Naw...! C'mon now...

Hunter class/profession, I couldn't care less about which elite spec, but something just feels wrong not having a pet companion fighting by your side. Which kinda defeats the whole purpose of the Hunter utilizing the pet command feature in the game, bad AI or not. But congrats. You chose an elite spec that essentially turns your character into a FURRY! 🙄

Engineer, same thing as the above. Plus, I don't like having to sacrifice THE ENTIRE TOOL BELT KIT SKILLS all for a tin can robot that can't even target the target that I WANT it to TARGET...! 😑 Scrapper should've been the pick I thought EVERYONE would agree on... And this is why I have a love-hate relationship with Guild Wars 2 that puts me on the fence from wanting to play it. Like... UGH!!! Some of the choices made for each of the classes' skills in this game just goes against my expectations... That, and many other things.

Thief... really community? Really...? Ya'll never heard of dual pistol gun Thief? Attacking from a SAFE distance at RANGE? With literally NO buttons or other skills required? I simply can't with these community choices... I just can't... 😑 They actually think jumping around like the Monkey King as a staffie Daredevil Thief is viable compared to dual pistol gun Thief... 😮‍💨

Illusionist... (I ain't callin' this class/profession no dumb 'Mesmer') 'Mesmer' ain't even a word. And I expected no less what the community choice was for this pick. They chose the "cool" aesthetic choice. I'm done disappointed.

This is what MY list would've been like for each elite spec, for any who care:
- Warrior (Berserker; PERFECT!)
- Paladin (Firebrand; ABSOLUTELY AGREED!)
- Revenant (VINDICATOR; I'm still salty over this not being picked in favor of 'Herald'...)

- Hunter (Druid; don't really care about this class/profession, but Druid's support skills compliments an already easy class/profession to play, along with pets)
- Thief (Assassin; "Deadeye", dunno WHY Arenanet couldn't just call this elite spec 'ASSASSIN'? It even sounds cooler than whatever, "Deadeye", is supposed to be, sarcastically. 🙄)
- Engineer (SCRAPPER; you're LITERALLY an Engineer! 😮‍💨 I also prefer Gyros over an incompotent AI bot)

- Necromancer (Reaper; no surprise since day ONE of this elite spec, should ONLY be the viable pick)
- Elemental Mage (Catalyst? Where do Arenanet get their terminologies from... CALAMITY should've been the correct term for this elite spec...)
- ILLUSIONIST (Mirage; and I'm still not calling this class/profession "Mesmer"...)

Again, this list defied ALL expectations that I expected to go a certain way. MASSIVELY disappointed with some of the picks, which I thought the community would pick the same as me...

I’m not sure how it was 11 months ago when this video was released, but as a virtuoso you still have your fantasm😉It’s the clones that become blades

Thanks!

Reaper wins again lelelelel

Elementalist main here. I guessed every single one of these right EXCEPT for Catalyst 😂 I see more Tempests (myself included) than Catalysts, and I always thought Tempests were the simpler class to learn when it comes to utility. The Jade Sphere always felt really awkward to manage for boon upkeep as opposed to attuning to water but wetter lol. This was really interesting to see!

Sweet Joko, I am so basic

for me, the Mechanist is like ranger with it's pet but has more control over the pet imo

Simplicity simplicity simplicity. I have enough stress in my real life. When i play my game i want to chill out not feel like a mad man😃😃

virtuoso doesn't have the ramp up time that mirage or chrono has

Hmm
1. Warrior, i think if we can customize the gunblade, more people would play Bladesworn.
2. Guardian, yeah no doubt Firebrand win. rest of the elite dont provide the variety of the Virtues skills
3. Revenant, herald has more boons to provide too compare to rest of the Elites. personally i like Vindicator because you gain 2 Legends instead of 1 and the dodge is cool
4. Ranger, yeah i think cuz theres not much to do with the Pet. end up people prefer to use Soulbeast. If Pet has its own leveling system with different attributes and equips etc. then i think more people would go Untamed
5. Engineer, scrapper mini copter is not as impactful as mechanic pet. and holosmith is melee so most people prefer to play engineer long range
6. Thief, daredevil no doubt better. Deadeye is just a niche class.
7. Mesmer, its because Clones are stupid. deal no dmg, (aside Phanstams) and you cant control much your clone. you create clone just to destroy/shatter it? then whats the different between other roles that is more direct deal AoE dmg? unless they rework or atleast give Mirage 's clones deal dmg (enough to be a threat), can be control/give command, and last for few mins rather than disappear after combat.
8. Necromancer, no doubt.
9. Elementalist, no doubt. the base elementalist class itself is already piano-level control.

As a berserker warrior, I tried getting into the other specs, but they really weren't cutting it for me. I mainly do PvE so Spellbreaker's boon removal feels terrible. And the fact that I can't customize the gunsaber to match my outfit means Bladesworn feels awful also. Berserker is not only simpler, but you also feel more freedom since you aren't forced to play the very specific mechanics of the spec.

The Chronomancer in WvW, when your leading and in voice is absolute beast and fun!

I'm shocked the Reaper won by that much, I find the Scourge to be just the perfect raiding class.. No locking animations/the ability to fuck up and still do amazing dps lol but I guess open world Reaper makes sense, you're durable as fark.

I resent that Soulbeast has gotten popular. I've never had a problem controlling my pet, and I play on controller (where I have to press a combination of buttons to activate some skills). It also goes so far as to inject nonsense stat boosts for pets that make no sense; Juvenile wolf gets the Deadly stat (Condition Damage and Precision) despite having no condition-damage abilities and being designed for CC.

It frustrates me that Mechanists get something so good that the spec becomes brain-dead and boring, yet the devs couldn't iron out whatever issues Ranger pets had.

I love Deadeye.

You can just plonk down and spam Deadeye's Mark.

Its practically all you need to do, resetting after every kill.

Burst of Shadows and Death Nova relic clears out most mobs.

Years playing but basically a filthy casual noob whose only dipped my toes in expansion content with only 2 elites.
I honestly like Necro's Specter most. Daredevil is awesome for using the staff as a staff, rare weapon in fantasy somehow. Deadeye is "Snipings a good job mate!". But Specter was like a support on caffeinated energy drinks. It's the closest to a priest class with abilities directly targeting allies for shields and buffs. I don't see any other class do this at all. It's just so fun playing the assassin dark magic character who for some reason heals and shields. It's so backwards I love it.

I picked Harbinger just cause a necromancer with a gun sounds badass and fun.

Catalyst being top is surprising. Personally, Catalyst feel almost too much like weaver to me especially when using hammer. Very piano smashing playstyle whereas tempest you have overload which offer much needed break from the constant button mashing.

So in end of dragons you get one extra weapon and in the next patch all weapons. Seems like they milking their players for money one patch at the time.

catalyst spear chucker incoming ;-)

For the Ranger, Druid is very specific, and you don't play ranger willing to become a druid. Not saying Druid can't power dps, or can't make a great adventure, but, it's not what you are watching for when you play a ranger

Not me, I play a "wizard" staff/staff Guardian - Firebrand

Wait, your "polling" was just "what do you think is most popular"? Thats the same as asking nothing at all. You could ask what do you personally play, ask for people that dont play it not answer... Aniway. The video was fun.

As a Rev enjoyer I play a lot of Herald these days. I love having quickness on demand as I do whatevers.

I main mesmer and I play actually power mirage unless I'm doing organized content. Power Mirage is enough to burst kill most monsters and tags effortlessly and safely in mass content. It is my favorite open world spec by far.

I like Herald just b ecause of the visuals. "Hehe, I get to make big prismatic dragon wing attack"

... I have 1 single braincell and in this case it led me to the right place

When they changed Berserker's greatsword rage spin skill I utterly just hated the class. It's still fun with other weapons and still nice with greatsword, but the big spin beyblade move was my favorite. And they took it away. Utterly furious.

This is for PVE right? Because in WvW I see completely different picture of most popular elite specs.

I tried most of this spec and my favorite is mechanist, it's incredible easy for me and strong for solo most things in world content.

Just starting out GW2 after years and years and years of Wow and ESO. LF discords or guilds to join where a mmo vet/gw2 noob can find some help and support

Love the channel keep up the good stuff!!!!

So what we can get from this video? That people like more simplistic characters with simple rotation then complicated piano class.

I think for today some other specs got more funs. But ppl just don't like hard rotation specs in general in all mmos so top 1 would be +- same.
What made me surprise that Vindi have so low %. It's feels same powerful as if you play berserk and I totally enjoy it.
Tempest with hummer make tempest more fun.I recommend ele lowers try it for sure.
Also druid is my fav friend if I want to kill hard stuff solo and I don't even need to change gear from group pve dps to do it.
Can't wait for next update with new weapon sets.😊

I'm kind of surprised Catalyst is the most popular. Save for the hammer, I didn't really enjoy Catalyst. Between it and Tempest I much preferred the elemental overload of the Tempest.
That said, I'm having so much fun as a Hammer Weaver. The weapon mastery training was such a good addition to the game.

As a Necro main since launch, Reaper was my least favorite of the 3. I always preferred Scourge over Reaper and then Harbinger over both. After a break though, I've circled back and am currently enjoying Reaper again. For Ele, Weaver was my favorite. I havent finished unlocking all of Cata though, but I have played it, and put it behind Weaver, above Tempest for me. And for Mesmer, a class I havent spent much time with, but is my 3rd most interested in class (Necro, Ele, Mesmer, I'm just bad at playing alts), Mirage is really the only spec that interested me, and the only one I have unlocked. I havent tried much of the other two outside of some PvP and Beta testing.

I play video games for fun not adding my level of stress and anxiety with complex rotation. So i chose the simplest easy to play elite spec like Scourge, Harbringer, Virtuoso or Herald

Don't see really anyone playing Bladesworn, almost nobody playing Weaver. Couldn't find a holosmith if ya paid me. After 7 years now of this game and making EVERY CLASS, and playing it at length, the truth is most of them don't have healing and barriers integrated well enough and they're dead all the time. If you're tired of this, just play any necro. I would love for other classes to not suck but they just do, and i'm tired of not lasting the whole fight because the class is built wrong with NO REAL HEALING (i'm looking at you short bow renegade)

Answer to all of this: Just be a Reaper.

i feel like i never see other mind blade players XD

I thought the Mirage would win, massive damage and super easy to play. I guess too easy, and Virtuoso offers just enough complexity. What I like about the Virtuoso is the blades stay with me :) even after mobs die.

I see mostly spectres in group either for boon or as a heal.

And for me I have no main, this changes with the changes, but a fix group of classes i hate to play like guardian, warrior, thief and elementalist which were never my classes and some of them i despise because of the overwhelming unbalanced damage.
I from time to time I play the warrior interpretation of the fire elementalist (berserker).
But since hscg rework i play nekro as heal (in the end i liked the changes not all but most) and as dps (reaper, harbinger) or qdps (harbinger) and then follows mesmer and ranger.
The mesmer is my favorite since Guild Wars.
Herold was my most played char before the rework since then never played it again. I dont like the playstyle of the vindicator and the renegade is mostly either my alacheal or alacprovider.

A few people i knew that play scrapper or thief in general are not very happy with the scrapper rework and those that play thief are either pvp/wvw players or play it when they do with d/d, staff or p/p and what is the hugh problem like with the ele you need to be able to play it because of lowest health and low armor, need to be able to play the mechanic and be able to know what you are doing.

The funny thing is basic engi can still outperform or be on par with the other specs. A guild member shows it quite often on raids and co when he and another guild member do their dps race.

Starting to notice a pattern. The most popular specs usually have a pretty straight forward rotation. Looks like not many people like to have a 20 button rotation when chilling in a video game.

I think that the reason for virtuoso dominating mesmer specs is simple - it removes your dependability on clones staying alive. Not only can enemy attacks kill them, meaning you have to play a rather nasty game of trying to sync up your skill cast order to skill animations to get three clones for every shatter, going out of combat kills the clones too. Virtuoso has... none of that, the blades stay on you until you use them.

The reason I play Soulbeast is because it's the ONLY way to remove the pet in combat! This is a feature I wanted to see since day one of playing Guild Wars 2, the ability to 'hide' the pet while in combat.

I love playing a ranged archer in games, and that is what a Ranger should be! You don't make a 'stealth' character and expect to play as an Archer. With that in mind, I created a Ranger to play at range using bow and arrow. Unfortunately, since release, there have been Z E R O, that's right zero, new ranged projectile weapons for ranger! The Thief can use more projectile weapons than the Ranger, something is up here. Why is Ranger constantly railroaded into melee? It's so disappointing, that I abandoned my Ranger. :( The closest similar playstyle for me is Virtuoso.

Well, seems like I just march to my own tune. I guess I'll give my own reasons for my choices on the ones I play.
Warrior: Bladesworn. 1 major reason. 6 figure dunks! I am a sucker for big, massive, meaty dunks. Also, I guess it's alacrity support on a class that otherwise has no access to it, but I really don't like that trait unless no one else is stepping up to the plate.
Guardian: Vanilla. I... just like the instant, non-disrupting nature of my virtues. I need to block an attack now? Block it! I need to cleanse conditions immediately? Clean it! I want to inflict 30-50 attacks worth of burning passives on a foe right now with my goon squad? Burn it! (I rarely press it in solo play, doing 2 passives worth of damage is not worth turning it off)
Thief: Deadeye. I just want to play a cowboy bounty hunter. Also are very capable of defense themselves, though more in the form of elusively via stealth. Lastly the best thief job in terms of big massive meaty dunks, which I always like.
Mesmer: Mirage. A dodge roll that gives me a cool super attack, doesn't interrupt whatever I am doing, and doesn't force me to move from my position? Heck ya! My only gripe is that their heal skill does force you to stand your ground, often forcing you to 'dodge roll' while your waiting for the heal to take it's sweat time to pay out.
Necro: Harbinger. Mainly because I've played reaper in the past as a teenager/young adult, and scourge has also traumatized me in pvp. (little timmy me would 'stand in the fire' no matter what to hold the point) Elixirs are also just a really cool skill type, giving both a positive to you, and a negative to the enemy at the same time.

Hammer soulbeast is really good. Kind of the best of untamed with much simpler mechanics. I use short bow on this also so I get a bit of range as well

imagine being a metaslave °.°

I'm amazed Deadeye isn't the most liked since it makes Thief into a badass sniper.

I love GW2 and i love your quality content.

Personally, I run Mirage with Greatsword//Dagger/focus. It's not a powerhouse, but i enjoy it. I like that the dagger ambush, like the sword ambush hits defiance for a 100 pts, and if traited, your 3 dagger clones will get that ability too. But, unlike the sword, you can do that 400 pt defiance strip from 1200 feet away.