Hey all, just some some context,

I intend to be participating in lots of sPVP and would love some input. Which of the above two classes would you rather have on your team? I know guardians are well loved/hated for being able to hold down a node by themselves (or at least delay enemies till the calvary arrives) but so far in most of the sPVP vids I've seen, one of the few constants has actually amazingly been the thief (Which just got a nice buff, but will probably be nerfed soon) because of their role as a roamer, the mobility and what I assume is their good dueling capability to win the further away nodes.

Also interested in doing WvW(vW) so perhaps insight into that would be awesome as well! Thanks.

rather have the guardian on my team, as I'm rolling a Thief for myself :P

@Covaloch: Play what you love, man. The thief and the guardian are pretty wildly different. Do you want to be more of a control/support class (guardian) or do you want to be more of a surgical strike class (thief)? What is more your play style?

I have no preference either way, but if you end up rolling a support-y thief I'd imagine we'd make for a pretty fierce roaming duo when I'm running my ele.

I personally really loved the dagger/pistol combo on my thief. I have yet to try the guardian profession though.

I had this same dilemma back in BWE1.

After trying both, I realized that the thief wasn't for me, while I absolutely loved the guardian. Just try them both out in the mists and you'll get a pretty good idea of which one is right for you.

I'd actually argue that guardians might be the best at duelling/roaming due to their combination of high survivability and high sustained damage. They also have good mobility with teleports.

Thanks. I guess my problem isn't so terrible as I'll probably roll both but due to contraints of time, will probably level one first. Both play styles sound awesome to me.

What about your thoughts for WVW v w? I've admittedly read more of the guardian forums over the past months, and a common complaint was that because of the lack of real ranged combat, Guardians felt nerfed in WvW. What's the feedback on thieves in this case?

ps: I really REALLY hate the idea of weapons like Horns, torches and focuses. And right now most if not all the popular builds of guardians seem to have focuses. Dammit.

Thief has always been a favorite class of mine in RPGs so that gets my vote.

@Dark_Lord_Spam: It has effective distance and damage, in addition to having an immobilize and vulnerability (on the same skill!). The second ability, Smite is the real odd one out. It hits random locations within its area of effect so the damage output from the scepter is lower than you'd think. As for torch, it's actually not that great as a damage weapon - it's actually a ridiculously good condition remover as odd as that might seem. Still, lighting yourself on fire is pretty damn cool to see.

It all sounds rather good, but its just the idea of a torch or horn or focus as a weapon feels gimicky you know? I like something less...unusual. If the sword/sheild works as good as a sword/focus i really wouldn't mind but it doesnt seem popular. Then again i guess i shouldnt be building my char according to popularity.

I really want to play an engineer because I think guns in fantasy is cool. But man, the melee combat hits so much fucking harder than the ranged in this (which is the opposite of SWTOR where the ranged felt nice and punchy and the melee was pillow hits). I might just go durr durr Human Warrior because fuck, hitting dudes with a sword is awesome. And I don't like ... God, so shiny paladin man is right out.

@Covaloch: Roll them both. Go into SPVP. See which you enjoy more, then keep on going. Both have drastically different playstyles and visual tones. They're practically impossible to compare (actually, all professions are practically impossible to compare).

@Covaloch said:

Thanks. I guess my problem isn't so terrible as I'll probably roll both but due to contraints of time, will probably level one first. Both play styles sound awesome to me.

What about your thoughts for WVW v w? I've admittedly read more of the guardian forums over the past months, and a common complaint was that because of the lack of real ranged combat, Guardians felt nerfed in WvW. What's the feedback on thieves in this case?

ps: I really REALLY hate the idea of weapons like Horns, torches and focuses. And right now most if not all the popular builds of guardians seem to have focuses. Dammit.

Guardians can provide a lot of good support and crowd control in WvW because players are always clumped together in large groups (I haven't played much WvW but I think this will be extremely valuable). Stuff like Shield of Absorption and Wall of Reflection can be used to block/reflect projectiles from large groups of teammates. You can forget about doing any damage there though because the scepter only has a single, slow-moving ranged attack and melee is too risky in large zergs.