User:Guild of Deals/Guide to the Professions

Since some people are having some issues on knowing what profession does what, I have constructed this handy-dandy guide to help.

Warrior
Your stereotype RPG character. Uses a variety of weapons to win.

Difficulty
FUCKING HARD: It's easy to be a Warrior. It's hard to be a good Warrior.

Stats

 * 80 armor (+20 vs. physical damage)
 * 2 energy regeneration
 * 20 base energy
 * 5 attributes:
 * Strength (primary)
 * Tactics
 * Swordsmanship
 * Axe Mastery
 * Hammer Mastery

Usage
PvP

Hit things until they die. Use skills to help you do this.

PvE

DPS 'cause tanks are useless.

Common Builds

 * Build:W/E PvP Shock Axe (Axe)
 * Archive:W/any Magehunter's Smash Warrior (Hammer)
 * Archive:W/E Crippling Slash Warrior (Swords are bad kk)

Ranger
A bow wielding marksman. The Ranger's attributes can provide a nice array of utilities.

Difficulty
HARD: The wide variety of Ranger utilites can be a hassle to use. Along with having to have nice reflexes for your interrupts, you also have to spam Conditions and find targets fast.

Stats

 * 70 armor (+30 vs. elemental damage)
 * 3 energy regeneration
 * 25 base energy
 * 4 attributes:
 * Expertise (primary)
 * Marksmanship
 * Wilderness Survival
 * Beast Mastery

Usage
PvP

A Ranger bar is basically a utility belt. Rangers use their supreme independence abilities to provide a great defense, while supplying interrupts and nice pressure. Skils like Burning Arrow, Crippling Shot, and Broad Head Arrow, all provide pressure and utility. Rangers can also be seen picking up another weapon, commonly a scythe, and using their Expertise to help.

PvE

Rangers are usually used for just damage. Barrage and Volley both provide much loved AoE damage, while their interrupts help stop key skills.

Common Builds

 * Archive:R/Mo PvP Crippling Shot (Bow)
 * Archive:R/D Wounding Strike Spammer (Scythe)

Monk
The main healer of Guild Wars. No good team leaves without one.

Stats

 * 60 armor
 * 4 energy regeneration
 * 30 base energy
 * 4 attributes:
 * Divine Favor (primary)
 * Healing Prayers
 * Protection Prayers
 * Smiting Prayers

Difficulty
FUCKING HARD: Your team relies on you. Along with having to heal numerous people, you have to protect yourself from all-to-common ganks. You'll be under constant pressure and have to keep yourself and team members alive. This is something that requires lots of practice. Try to leave Monks up to the pros.

Usage
PvP

Healing and protting are what they're mainly for. Using your Protection Prayers to stop spikes, ganks, and pressure, while healing with Healing Prayers. Smiters are also seen, usually providing damage support and utility.

PvE

As with PvP, Monks are for healing and protting. Just keep your team alive.

Common Builds

 * Build:Mo/any PvP Word of Healing
 * Archive:Mo/any SoD Monk
 * Archive:Mo/any SoD Monk

Necromancer
Using Hexes and support to win, the Necromancer can be a great asset.

Difficulty
3,2,1

Stats

 * 60 armor
 * 4 energy regeneration
 * 30 energy
 * 4 attributes:
 * Soul Reaping (primary)
 * Curses
 * Blood Magic
 * Death Magic

Usage
PvP

The Necromancer can play a few different roles. Most commonly is to provide melee pressure. Skills like Reckless Haste and Price of Failure can deter attackers. Support can also be played. Skills like Foul Feast in conjunction with Plague Signet of Plague Sending provide a nice way to easily turn conditions back on your enemies. Necromancers may also use Soul Reaping and Ritualist spells together to provide a hybird.

PvE

Necromancers are mainly just Minion Masters. Using Death Magic and minions provide a nice "meat wall" and can pump out some nice damage. Another option is Spiteful Spirit, which can crush away at mobs.

Common Builds

 * Archive:N/E Spiteful Spirit Necromancer
 * Archive:N/Rt Icy Veins Healer

Elementalist
Uses the Elements to do stuff. The 4 different elements means a lot of different builds.

Difficulty
MEDIUM: Your standard Elementalist is generically easy, just spam this, spam that, cast this, cast that, not much else. However, since they're popular flaggers, they can be hard to run (as flaggers), thus, they qualify as medium.

Stats

 * 60 armor
 * 4 energy regeneration
 * 30 base energy (not including Energy Storage)
 * 5 attributes:
 * Energy Storage (primary)
 * Air Magic
 * Water Magic
 * Fire Magic
 * Earth Magic

Usage
PvP

Since there's many elements, I'll run through each one. Air Magic is basically just running B-Surge, throwing Blind on any physicals. Fire Magic is usually Mind Blast, keeping up energy to use high-energy spells. Fire Magic can also be used to nuke, which can be seen in HA and AB. Water Magic is snaring, which can be used to stop that frontliner from hitting on your Monk or for stopping that kiting. Earth Magic is rather dead, but Wards can be thrown on most builds for defense. You can also run a flagger for GvG.

PvE

Nuke. That's pretty much all. Just throw all your big Fire Magic spells on a mob and watch them die. Not much else.

Common Builds

 * Archive:E/N GvG Blinding Surge (Air)
 * Build:E/any PvP Savannah Heat (Fire)
 * Archive:E/any Icy Shackles Elementalist (Water)
 * Archive:E/Me Shatterstone Gank (Water)
 * (Flagger)

Dervish
Dervishes are usually solid frontliners. Their avatars provide good utilities. However, since the buff of Wounding Strike, Dervishes can be seen commonly spamming conditions.

Difficulty
EASY: Just spam, spam, and spam. Not much else

Stats

 * 70 armor
 * 4 energy regeneration
 * 20 base energy
 * 4 attributes:
 * Mysticism (primary)
 * Earth Prayers
 * Scythe Mastery
 * Wind Prayers

Usage
PvP

Since the buffs to Wounding Strike, now they just mainly spam DW and Bleeidng mindlessly. Otherwise, they can be seen running Avatars, or rarely even spikers in lower end PvP. However, Wounding Strike is supreme.

PvE

Dervishes usually just play your stereotypical frontliner. Avatar of Balthazar and Avatar of Melandru both provide high tanking abilities. Still, Dervishes can abuse Mysticism with Orders, but that's more commonly seen for heroes.

Common Builds

 * D/E Wounding Strike
 * D/W Wounding Strike Dervish

Mesmer
Murder teams through caster shenanigans.

Difficulty
FUCKING HARD: The only class in the game where you can be more ineffective if you're bad is Monk, and that's only because red bars are more immediately obvious than interrupts. If you're good, you will win everything forever.

Stats

 * 60 armor
 * 4 energy regeneration
 * 30 base energy
 * 4 attributes:
 * Fast Casting (primary)
 * Domination Magic
 * Inspiration Magic
 * Illusion Magic

Usage
PvP

The main thing is to shut down stuff. So, skills like Diversion or P-Block are key. A lot of weight is on a Mesmer's shoulders, as killing a Monk without shutting it down can be tricky.

PvE

Mesmers in PvE commonly spam skills like Empathy and Backfire to take advantage of dumb monster AI. They can easily kill themselves using these skills. However, Mesmers can be seen as a more common secondary profession, using the different elemental Mantras to make powerful tanks with Ursan Blessing.

Common Builds

 * Build:Me/any PvP Power Block
 * Archive:Me/Rt Migraine Mesmer

Paragon
Paragons are very good hybrids of sorts. Spears easily fit into their support bars, which can buff the party to a high extent.

Difficulty
EASY: Mainly it's just spamming buffs and spear attacks. Not much else.

Stats

 * 80 armor
 * 2 energy regeneration
 * 20 base energy
 * 4 attributes:
 * Leadership (primary)
 * Motivation
 * Command
 * Spear Mastery

Usage
PvP

Paragons mainly just do some auto-attacking and spam skills. Just use your buffs whenever you can and spam attacks whenever you can.

PvE

The Paragon is overpowered for PvE, mostly with the Imbagon (see below). Using this can make nearly any team invincible, and makes blasting through PvE easy as cake.

Common Builds

 * Build: P/W Focused PvE Paragon (Imbagon)

Assassin
Assassins are the main spikers of Guild Wars. They use a variety of snares, knockdowns, and Conditions to provide an overwhelming spike. They can also be seen running Critical Weapons, such as Scythes, to take advantage of their main attribute.

Difficulty
FUCKING EASY: Just click 1-6, kite around, rinse and repeat.

Stats

 * 70 armor
 * 4 energy regeneration
 * 25 base energy
 * 4 attributes:
 * Critical Strikes (primary)
 * Dagger Mastery
 * Shadow Arts
 * Deadly Arts

Usage
PvP

As said, the Assassin is to spike. So, find an important target, use your chain, and rinse and repeat. Other than that, running a Critical Weapon of sorts (like Scythes) can provide a sort of pressurer.

PvE

Moebius Strike and Death Blossom is a common combo for PvE, easily ripping up mobs. However, since the buff to Shadow Form, Assassins have become master farmers, maintaining invincibility with little effort.

Common Builds

 * Archive:A/E AoD Shock Sin
 * Archive:A/D WS Crit Scythe
 * Archive:A/W Backbreaker Sin
 * Archive:A/E Perma Daggers Farmer

Ritualist
The rather PvP-debunked Ritualist is a rather overlooked class nowadays. The Ritualist provides support, healing, and damaging attributes, which makes it a dynamic character. Their main usage though is to provide some of the highest quality support while providing some back-up healing.

Difficulty
EASY: Just mindlessly spam your buffs on corresponding allies, that's it.

Stats

 * 60 armor
 * 4 energy regeneration
 * 30 base energy
 * 4 attributes:
 * Spawning Power (primary)
 * Channeling Magic
 * Communing Magic
 * Restoration Magic

Usage
PvP

Ritualists aren't that commonly used in PvP currently. Still, if running one there, Ritualists should buff players with Weapon Spells and provide healing. Otherwise, Ritualists can be great flag runners in GvG.

PvE

Splinter Weapon. Since Splinter Weapon is a hugely popular skill, it's no surprise it's almost a necessity for PvE. Still, like PvP, Ritualists should spam buffs onto party members.

Common Builds

 * Archive:Rt/A WoR Flag Runner