When the thief was announced, people originally thought it was a very similar profession to the ranger. Their combat styles do show similarities, but do not be mistaken, these are very different professions. In my opinion, the ranger is more similar to the necromancer, and the thief is more similar to the mesmer. Nevertheless, many of you are probably deciding between the two, and I hope the current column can help make your choice clearer.
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Ranger vs Necromancer
Now, one might also want to include mesmers and engineers as summoning classes, and I’ll address why I won’t include them in this head to head first. The engineer’s summons are static. You can carry one, but really, they are not mobile. The mesmer’s summons, on the other hand, are not durable. Clones are easy to kill, phantasms don’t last very long either, and both disappear if their target dies.
The ranger and necro are the only ones that have a viable option for having a pet (or many) follow them around to do their bidding. If having a summon (or many) is important for you, these are probable the two classes that will rank highest in your lineup.
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People who know me know I love summons. But more than that, I do love hybrids. Guild Wars 2 will offer a lot of ways to play hybrid with all professions, especially with the weapon swaps. However, the two most flexible on-the-fly hybrids have one thing in common… they do not have a weapon swap.
The elementalist swaps between 4 elements instead of swapping weapons, effectively changing his 5 weapon skills therefore changing his role during combat. He thus has access to 5*4=20 weapon skills during combat. The engineer uses kits that also changes his 5 weapon skills. He can equip up to 4 kits, giving him up to (4+1)*5=25 weapon skills during combat.
Players who like to adapt to the situation or to the needs of the team will want to keep an eye on those two professions.
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With the mesmer right off from the press, I thought I’d do a head to head with it. And who best to compare with than the … thief? What was I thinking?
Well, in a recent interview, a dev described the mesmer as “a fencing, dueling, finesse, mind game profession”. Does it sound like a thief?
Also, there are many commonalities. High mobility, lots of disables, sneak-based skills like stealth, can use a sword and pistol, do I really need more? Players who like to annoy other players (or foes) will be interested in those two professions.
If you’re thinking about playing melee, there are a few good options. If you plan, however, to stay in the frontlines, you are probably debating between the warrior or the guardian. Both feature many melee weapons, good survival value, and the highest armor in the game. Here, we compare and contrast the two on damage, control, and support.
