Class with most self utility and sustainability?

[The Pro]

I always play this type of class, like a WoW ret paladin or shadow priest. Im stumped on which class fits the description. Self-sustainable, with a lot of tricks to stay alive and keep dishing out damage. Melee vs ranged doesn't matter. I was thinking guardian, but it seems like guardians focuses more on area cleansing and protection for allies, which isn't really my thing. And yes, i know all classes have support spells, but they also each seem to have their own niche. Any ideas?

[Larynx]

Elementalist.

Necromancer is also very self sustaining as well. Less general utility, but a lot of life stealing and durability.

[Malthurius]

Guardian is definitely what automatically comes to mind, but you can be a selfish Guardian as well, I've played around with such builds can they can be effective.

Engineer, Warrior, and Necromancer come to mind as well, probably Necromancer moreso that Engineer and Warrior.

[Terranullis]

You are right that a good majority of the Guardians spells focuses on helping allies.. as for a profession (class) for you... most have a few tricks up their sleeve.. The Elementalist from personal experience has a lot of tricks up their sleeve with 20 abilities. Using a staff in WvW I was able to dish out a great amount of damage while also slow/immobilizing others and fleeing.

It's really a decision that can only be made you by having a go at each profession and unlocking the abilities of each weapon.

[zito]

Elementalist
Mesmer
Engineer
Ranger
Warrior
Theif
Guardian
Necromancer

Take your pick.

[Valeron]

All of them really.

[Kelesti]

Mesmer. My clones eating an attack means that I don't, letting me kite better and buy more time for my self-heal to come off of cooldown.

Or, as zito puts it:

Elementalist
Mesmer
Engineer
Ranger
Warrior
Theif
Guardian
Necromancer

These are the classes, in no particular order. You want utility and sustainability? Trait it, and play it well.

[Deleted]

As others have said, all of them. They've all got their unique flavour but also the tools and means to fulfill a number of different niches. Your best bet is to play around with them when you get the chance and see which fits your preferred playstyle the best.

[zito]

Kel you better play on SoS (ima try and get on SoS) and we gonna tear shibangles up as mesmers.

[rhandric]

All of them. Their niches, as you put it, comes in how they do it, not what they do. They all do everything, but they all do it differently.

[Kelesti]

Kel you better play on SoS (ima try and get on SoS) and we gonna tear shibangles up as mesmers.

I think I'm actually going Tarnished Coast with a bunch of friends this weekend.

And doing a Charr Thief, so I can save my Mezzie for launch rather than have rolled it three times.

[Deleted]

All of them.

Nah ;P here's a basic outline of what each class does uniquely:
Mesmer - Summon copies of yourself to do various purply magic. Images can be detonated for damage or to induce fear or apply conditions. You also get short range teleport spells that allow you to get away without much effort.
Necromancer - You are constantly building up shadow power when using abilities which you can use to enter a shadow form with new abilities, reduces damage taken and increases damage done. Outside shadow form, you apply conditions and induce fear (with certain weapons).
Warrior - This one's very basic. Use hammer, smash opponent, gain energy for charged smash. Same applies to all warrior weapons. As for survivability and utility, the ranged weapons offer more than the melee but melee does a lot more damage and can deal a lot better with multiple mobs.
Elementalist - Switch between 4 different elements. Water gives you ice and healing abilities, fire gives you fire and condition damage, air gives you lightning and control and earth gives you defense and earth damage. This one could potentially be something you should play.
Thief - Move in and out of stealth, pick the oponents' weapon and move around them with ease and control. This one is probably the hardest to get into but very satisfying when mastered.
Engineer - Very much centred on your character in terms of abilities. You have mines, turrets and lots more to keep you interested. Very good survival profession but also kinda hard to master.
Ranger - Pet based. I think you can pretty much tell how this works without playing it.
Guardian - Someone else fill this one in for me, I haven't had a chance to try it.

I'd say Elementalist, Necromancer or Warrior would be your best choices. They can deal a lot of damage and still survive very well in bad situations.

PS: Yes, I love lists. What of it?

[Deleted]

Most self sustain I would bet on the Necromancer certainly, they however don't have as much utility as you would imagine. Which I'd probably give the Elementalist or Engineer credit to. They are all quite capable though, depending on what route you go. Here's some spotlights in case you're interested, for a basic outline of almost all the professions.

[The Pro]

Thanks for the great answers guys

[Deleted]

Necro I'd say definetly.

[Jibjub]

If I think utility, I think Elementalist and Engineer. Sustainability, I think Guardian and Necro. But, as mentioned, with traiting most all profs can fill the role you need.

Also, necromancers are the best at everything.

[saeren]

Pretty much every class can sacrifice damage for mobility/utility through utility skills and traits. I've been playing a ton of Elementalist and it's somewhat self-sustaining, but then again... every class has a heal and escapes if you choose to use them. Guardians are pretty defensive in nature it seems, and are best at providing capture point defense and group boons, but they are definitely one of the more "self-sustaining" classes based on how many shields/heals/barriers/regeneration you can get.

[Deleted]

elementalist doesn't really have much utility.

if you want to play your elementalist well, sadly you're stuck in 1 element all the time because you design your traits and weapons around that element which dictate how the other elements behave, and most of the time they get hindered by those choices. thirdly, gearing towards your main element causes the 3 other elements to get weaker because each element has a favoured stat.

while you *can* switch to the water element to heal an ally, unless your traits and gear are focussed towards the water element it is not advised imo.

oh, and the best element for WvWvW is fire hands down, nothing beats it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEEQ...oEeQADCIeYhERA

thats my idea of a fire build: as you can see, maxed out fire/air traits for pure damage while taking the signets necessary to escape, means i can put very little trait points into earth/water/arcane, and ive only put 10 points in water for more damage.

[Maarius]

traits make a huge difference... I think every profession has traits which can provide you with such tricks.

take a look at all the traits

[DrakeWurrum]

Self-sustainable, with a lot of tricks to stay alive and keep dishing out damage

Not to nitpick, but every profession does this. Seriously.

If you wanted to know which profession has a "niche" in that role, it uh... largely depends on what traits you choose, how you gear up that character. Every profession can be a glass cannon, but every profession can also be a tough mofo to kill.

I'm willing to bet Guardian is your cup of tea, as you suggested. They do a lot of allied support, but so? It's the only one that really matches the "flavor" you seem to be looking for.

---------- Post added 2012-07-19 at 11:18 PM ----------

sadly you're stuck in 1 element all the time because you design your traits and weapons around that element which dictate how the other elements behave

Not if you build properly.

You can specialize into specific elements, but you also don't have to. There's several builds that are attunement neutral, as well as builds where constant attunement swapping is the core of the build, as well as builds that trait bonuses for 2+ of the 4 attunements. Too lazy to actually take the time to show you the several dozen examples I could come up with, since all my saved builds at gw2builds.org are still stuck in BWE1.

Of course, a lot will have changed since BWE2, so even the two builds I showed above might be dramatically different, but that's beside the point. The system does not force you to specialize into specific attunements. In fact, with the way combat works, you are strongly encouraged to at least use two of the attunements regularly.

It's also worth noting that even if you pick a bunch of traits to empower Air and Fire attunement, the other two attunements are FAR from useless. So what if there's bonuses to Air and Fire? If, at the moment, what you need to win the fight is to use the utility of Water or Earth, then you should not let your trait build hold you back thinking "But oh no, my traits don't boost those attunements!"

Every profession's spells are designed to be powerful/useful on their own, and then simply be empowered a bit further by traits, to introduce additional bonuses and playstyles.

This isn't WoW, where being an Enhancement Shaman means your heals will be shitty, and your ranged capabilities mediocre at best.