So I've been reading the forums and been involved in discussion on various levels with regards to how professions are viewed in light of the current meta. Below I've composed a very simple chart to represent the "perceived" effectiveness and desirablity of having a specific profession in a given situation. The presumptions going into this are:
a) Professions are viewed in generality. Meaning that there are of course in GW2 are several ways of building out any profession. There are certain builds that are played for a particular arena for a reason. For example a bunker build Guardian may be more desirable for holding a point in sPvP whereas a Save Yourselves shout build more in WvW.
b) There are always exceptions to the rule. I really believe that a skilled player is greater than any one profession. So in this chart once again the presumption is based off how often you see a profession in that given arena and how effective or desired they are in the broadest of sense of the class.
c) This chart was simply an experiment to see if views expressed on the forums and in game have any validity or resonance to them. So please feel free to express your thoughts if a class should be adjusted one way or the other.
Ratings
To keep it simple I rated the profession in a given arena as Strong (efficient & desirable), Nominal (can be used will little impact on group/game play) or Weak ( not desirable or if played requires more effort than other classes to achieve results)
Arena Descriptions
PvE Farming - Open World and/or General Dungeon Running
PvE Fractal - High End Fractal Dungeons
WvW Zerg - Coordinated Open World Zerg usage
WvW Roam - 1v1 situational
sPvP - High end Tournament competitions
Profession/ Arena | PvE Farming | PvE Fractal | WvW Zerg | WvW Roam | sPvP |
Guardian | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong |
Warrior | Strong | Nominal | Strong | Strong | Weak |
Elementalist | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong |
Mesmer | Weak | Nominal | Weak | Strong | Nominal |
Necromancer | Strong | Strong | Strong | Nominal | Strong |
Engineer | Strong | Strong | Strong | Nominal | Strong |
Thief | Nominal | Nominal | Nominal | Strong | Strong |
Ranger | Nominal | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak |
Lastly just want to add that this is not a personal attack on any one class. As many of you know I would like to main/play a mesmer. Have from the beginning. There are times I struggle trying to find my place as that profession. My hope is to see if we could have a healthy discussion and possibly increase awareness of professions strengths and weaknesses with the intention of making our group dynamics stronger. What are you thoughts?